The MLJ Companion by TwoMorrows Publishing

THE

C O M PA N I O N by Rik Offenberger Paul Castiglia & Jon B. Cooke from THE GOLDEN AGE…

through the silver age…

into the 1980s…

up to the present day!

The Complete History of the Archie Comics Super-Heroes!

The Mighty Crusaders #4 cover pastiche by Oliver Isabedra. Courtesy of Michael Dunne.

The MLJ Companion

by Rik Offenberger, Paul Castiglia & Jon B. Cooke

TwoMorrows Publishing Raleigh, North Carolina

by Rik Offenberger, Paul Castiglia & Jon B. Cooke

The MLJ Companion: The Complete History of the Archie Comics Super-Heroes Written by Rik Offenberger, Paul Castiglia, and Jon B. Cooke • Edited by Paul Castiglia and Jon B. Cooke Design and Production by Jon B. Cooke • Proofreading and Published by John Morrow Cover art by Rich Buckler and Joe Rubinstein • Cover Coloring by Glenn Whitmore Dedications Paul Castiglia : To my parents, who kindly indulged and enabled my post-church comics-buying habit at Pal’s Stationary in Pequannock, New Jersey; and the librarians at the Pequannock Township Public Library, who never seemed to mind the fact that I borrowed and renewed the book The Great Comic Book Heroes so many times that I practically owned it! Rik Offenberger: To my father, Martin, who shared his love of comics with me. To my wife, Denny, who put up with my lifelong hobby and joined me in all my comic book related activities. To Brad Cobb, Shawn Clay, and Scott Martin, who helped me develop www.mightycrusaders.net. To Michael Silberkleit and Mike Pellerito, who made me part of Archie Comic Publications, and to Paul Castiglia, who has been my friend for more than ten years. Without all of you, this book would never have happened. Jon B. Cooke: This one’s for Vic Torr… that is, the mighty Victor Gorelick, editor extraordinaire at Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Disclosures Editorial Package ©2016 Paul Castiglia, Rik Offenberger, Jon B. Cooke, and TwoMorrows Publishing. All rights reserved. The text of individual features is © the respective authors. All rights in the MLJ Comics characters were assigned to Archie Comics. Archie Comics does not endorse or confirm the accuracy of, or the views expressed in, this book. Red Circle, Dark Circle, Spectrum Comics, Mighty Comics Group, and Archie Adventure Series are TM Archie Comic Publications, Inc. All titles in the Impact! Comics line were published by DC Comics, under license by Archie Comic Publications, Inc. All Archie characters names and likenesses TM & ©2016 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Archie characters created by John L. Goldwater. The likenesses of the original Archie characters were created by Bob Montana. The Mighty Crusaders, Black Hood, Black Jack, Bob Phantom, Captain Flag, Comet, Dusty, Fireball, Firefly, Fly-Girl, Fox, Hangman, Inferno, Jaguar, Madam Satan, Mr. Justice, Roy the Super-Boy, Shield, Steel Sterling, Super Duck, Web, Wizard, and all associated characters and titles TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. • Avengers, Captain America, Fantastic Four, Human Torch, Spider-Man TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • Batman, Capt. Storm, Flash, Justice League of America, Robin, Superman TM & © DC Comics. • G.I. Joe TM & © Hasbro. • Dynamo, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents TM & © Radiant Assets LLC. • The Shadow TM & © Condé Nast. • Thunder Bunny TM & © Martin Greim. • The Silver Spider, The Double Life of Private Strong, and The Adventures of the Fly © Joseph H. Simon Estate. • The Web Online Adventure © Chuck Grimes. Special Thanks The authors and publisher would like to share their sincere appreciation to all who helped with the production of this tome. Our gratitude to Neal Adams, Vicente Alcazár, Bill Black, Richard Bruning, Rich Buckler, Sr., Steve Butler, Joe Carroll, Barbara Jarvie-Castiglia, J. Michael Catron, Shawn Clay, John Coates, Bradley Cobb, Continuity Associates, Dwight Decker, Tom DeFalco, Dan DiDio, Michael Dunne, Steve Englehart, Angela Fernot of Spiderwebart Gallery, Dave Garcia, Allan Goldman, Jon Goldwater, Ron Goulart, Chuck Grimes, Melissa Groben, Ernesto Guevara, Clizia Gussoni, Damian Harris, Jason Harris, Dean Haspiel, Roger Hill, Christopher Irving, Oliver Isabedra, Kelley Jones, Paul Kaminski, James Kealey, Amanda Kechely, Ray Kelly, Todd Klein, Jennifer Lahr, Mark Lester, Paul Levitz, Stephen Lipson, Mike Machlan, Sam Maronie, Doug Martin, Scott Martin, Bob McLeod, David Merrill, Will Murray, Michelle Nolan, Denny Offenberger, Grant Offenberger, Martin Offenberger, Steven Oswald, Mike Pellerito, Jeff Rovin, Joe Rubinstein, Mike SanGiacomo, Jean Scrocco, Alex Segura, Greg Scott, Jim Simon, Rob Smentek, Andrew A. Smith, Chris Squires, Kris Adams Stone, Roy Thomas, Maggie Thompson, Steven Thompson, The Time Capsule, Stan Timmons, Michael Uslan, Jim Valentino, Jeffrey Vaughn, Glenn Whitmore, Gregg Whitmore, Kendall Whitehouse, Alex Wright, Rob Yeremian, Craig Yoe, and Tom Ziuko. Recognition The authors and editors would also like to acknowledge the research and journalism of the following: Jim Amash, Dwight R. Decker, Michael Feldman, George Gene Gustines, Ryan McLelland, Joe Queenan, Vaneta Rogers, David Saunders, Paula Span, Don Thompson, and Sheldon Wiebe.

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, North Carolina 27614 www.twomorrows.com • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com First Printing • August 2016 • Printed in China Softcover ISBN: 978-1-60549-067-0

Chapter 1: MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s Partner Profiles: The Men Behind MLJ Magazines ........................................... 76 All The Way With MLJ! by Ron Goulart.............................................................. 79 Creator Chat: Irv Novick...................................................................................... 96 The Black Hood… on the Air!.............................................................................. 101 Stanley Taffet Takes the Top-Notch Prize......................................................... 105 The Black Hood, Pulp Fiction Hero................................................................. 107 A Brief History of Canada’s Golden Age Archie Comics .............................. 108 Super Duck, the Cockeyed Wonder.................................................................... 110 Close-Up: MLJ Comics… Exposed!...................................................................... 114 Interlude: The Archie Phenomenon.....................................................118 Chapter 2: Mighty Comics in the 1950s and ’60s Those Mighty Crusaders by Will Murray........................................................... 120 The Anti-Crime Squad........................................................................................ 123 MLJ Done the S&K Way.................................................................................... 127 The Pre-Mighty Comics...................................................................................... 130 The Spider and the Fly......................................................................................... 132 Too Many Ultra Heroes!..................................................................................... 139 Mighty Comics “Expands”................................................................................. 140 Mighty Marvel and the Mighty Crusaders...................................................... 142 The Other Fly-Man................................................................................................ 144 The Invasion of the High Camp Super-Heroes................................................. 146 Jerry Siegel’s Second Act...................................................................................... 149 Super Heroics: the Game of Crime Fighting..................................................... 150 The Shadow’s Forgotten Era at Archie Comics................................................. 152 The Secret Life of Mr. Archibald Andrews........................................................ 156 Interlude: Where are the Heroes?.........................................................160 Chapter 3: 1970s’ Red Circle Comics Group Sorcery Supreme! Vicente Alcazár Interview by Jon B. Cooke........................ 162 Creator Chat: Gray Morrow.............................................................................. 164 Red Circle Comics Group Index....................................................................... 167 Interlude: Mighty Legion of Justice......................................................168 Chapter 4: The Red Circle Heroes of the ’80s The Red Circle Years by Rik Offenberger............................................................. 170 Creator Chat: Rich Buckler................................................................................ 174 The Eve of Neal Adams........................................................................................ 177 With One Magic Clap… Thunder Bunny!...................................................... 179 Creator Chat: Cary Burkett............................................................................... 180 The Mighty Crusaders Action Figure Line..................................................... 184 Creator Chat: Dick Ayers................................................................................... 186 Creator Chat: Bill DuBay................................................................................... 188 Creator Chat: Stan Timmons ........................................................................... 192 Fox in Archie’s Henhouse: Alex Toth’s Edgy Take on the MLJ Hero ......... 195 Interlude: Descent into Darkness.........................................................198

Table of Contents

Foreword by Paul Castiglia ............................................................................... 69 Introduction by Rik Offenberger .................................................................... 71 Prelude: Roots of the MLJ Line........................................................................ 72 A Key to the Mighty Heroes of MLJ ................................................. 74

Chapter 5: The Ill-Fated Spectrum Comics Line Into the Spectrum by Rik Offenberger & Bradley S. Cobb............................... 200 Creator Chat: Kelley Jones................................................................................. 200 Creator Chat: Mark Ellis..................................................................................... 201 Creator Chat: Jim Valentino.............................................................................. 202 Steve Englehart Charts the Fly’s Course............................................................. 204 Scott Fulop on Spectrum (and those PSAs)...................................................... 207 Spectrum: The Comics Buyer’s Guide Article..................................................... 208 Spectrum: Killed at Birth....................................................................................... 210 Interlude: In the House of Superman...................................................212 Chapter 6: Impact Comics of the 1990s Making an Impact by Bradley S. Cobb................................................................. 214 The Impact Trading Cards.................................................................................. 220 Creator Chat: Brian Augustyn........................................................................... 224 Impact Socks It Old School................................................................................ 227 Creator Chat: Jimmy Palmiotti......................................................................... 229 Character Stats: The Black Hood, The Comet, and The Fly.......................... 230 Interlude: DC’s Diminishing Impact....................................................236 Chapter 7: Between Impact and Archie The Fly (almost) Goes Hollywood by Paul Castiglia....................................... 238 Creator Chat: Michael Uslan....................................................................239 Chapter 8: An MLJ Hero in the Digital Age The Web Goes World Wide by Paul Castiglia................................................... 244 Chapter 9: The Archie Gang Joins the MLJ! MLJ Goes to Riverdale by Paul Castiglia............................................................ 246 Creator Chat: Paul Castiglia.............................................................................. 248 Interlude: The Straczynski Effect...........................................................252 Chapter 10: The Crusaders Return to DC Into the DC Universe: Rachel Gluckstern Interview by Rik Offenberger.... 254 Creator Chat: Marco Rudy................................................................................. 256 Creator Chat: John Rozum................................................................................ 257 Creator Chat: Eric Trautman............................................................................. 260 Creator Chat: Brandon Jerwa............................................................................ 261 Creator Chat: Tom Derenick............................................................................. 263 Interlude: Full Circle at DC Comics.....................................................264 Chapter 11: Red Circle’s Fox and New Crusaders Digitizing MLJ’s Heroes by Jon B. Cooke............................................................ 266 Interlude: Archie’s Monster Makeover.................................................270 Chapter 12: Dawning of the Dark Circle Red Circle Goes Dark: Alex Segura Interview by Rik Offenberger................ 272 Bright Ruminations on the Dark Circle Comics.............................................. 276 Postscript: Those Majestic MLJ Heroes 75 Years (and Counting) of Archie’s Ever-Changing Super-Heroes............ 278 Collecting MLJ Comics: J. C. Vaughn Interview by Rik Offenberger........... 280 Learn More About MLJ......................................................................................... 284 It’s a Mighty MLJ World........................................................................................ 286

Top Notch Comics #19 [Sept. 1941]. Script: Harry Shorten [as “Cliff Campbell”]. Art: Al Camy.

Zip Comics #1 [Feb. 1940]. Script: Abner Sundell. Art: Charles Biro. 21

Zip Comics #27 [July 1942]. Script: Unknown. Art: John Cassone. 33

Pep Comics #30 [Aug. 1942]. Script: Harry Shorten. Art: Irv Novick. 46

Pep Comics #17 [July 1941]. Script: Harry Shorten or Abner Sundell [as “Cliff Campbell”]. Art: George Storm. 58

by Paul Castiglia Often the best discoveries are the most unexpected. One such discovery for me was the Mighty Crusaders. I came upon Archie’s fabled heroes as I imagine many my age did: randomly and in-between incarnations. Stumbling across a public service announcement in an Archie digest while researching the company for which I hoped to become a freelance writer, the image of the characters at once excited, fascinated and intrigued me. Here were Captain America-esque star-spangled titans I’d never seen before. And a feral-in-a-Wolverine-kind-of-way hero with leopard spots on his costume. And a yellow and green webby dude who wasn’t Spider-Man. Who were these guys?!

My next encounter with the characters came at a comic shop that was literally a warehouse of back issues. Here were all of them in comic series of their own, as well as anthologies! Some were published under a “Red Circle” banner while other issues sported “Archie Adventure Series” on the cover. I snapped up the issues at a bargain price, most five or more years after their original publication date. I immersed myself in this “other” comics universe that strangely mirrored those of the “Big Two,” yet simultaneously had hints of an indy edge as well. Inspired by what I read, I became even more determined to get work at Archie… but now my focus shifted to getting “inside” in an editorial capacity, to perhaps help usher in the next incarnation of these characters.

The images set off a slideshow in my mind. It flashed through memories of the books, Steranko’s History of Comics, Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes, and Les Daniel’s Comix, but there was nary an image I could immediately recall connecting to these characters. Mentions perhaps, but my mind remained in limbo: these characters were at best vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t definitively place them.

The happy outcome was landing a full-time job at Archie in January of 1990. Initially I was an assistant editor and archivist/ historian, but ultimately became a full-fledged editor as well as writer, public relations, and direct sales coordinator and director of new product development. The Mighty Crusaders permeated every aspect of my work on-staff, and even later as a freelance writer/editor, after I left the staff position in 1999.

Foreword

Heroes Unexpected

As public service announcements, Archie Comic Publications used their super-hero characters to combat illiteracy (and retain their trademark ownership!). This 1989 house ad was MLJ Companion coauthor Paul Castiglia’s first introduction to the MLJ super-hero universe!

Foreword

My first “deep dive” into the Crusaders’ history beyond those Red Circle back issues came when I researched the first Archie Americana edition. The Americana series was Archie’s then-fledgling reprint series designed to deliver vintage stories in premium form the way the DC Archives and Marvel Masterworks did. Imagine my pleasant surprise as I pored through bound volumes of 1940s-era Archie titles, particularly Pep and Jackpot, to learn that many of the heroes I’d become infatuated with began in the Golden Age. And many predated Archie himself—not to mention “Archie Comics” as a company name, since it all began under the MLJ imprint in 1939 (two years before “carrot top” came on the scene). To say I was hooked is an understatement. I became enamored of many a Golden Age MLJ character. Sure, Mister Justice was more than a bit inspired by the Spectre—but the Spectre didn’t have that cool Scottish royalty backstory! The Web was a criminologist—he didn’t just want to catch the crooks, but find out what made them tick. When he migrated to the Silver Age as a henpecked hero-husband, I liked him even more. Black Hood and the Hangman meted out justice in surprisingly no-nonsense style (many folks forget “grim and gritty” was actually businessas-usual for many of the ’40s heroes). On the lighter side, the flippant Black Jack became my favorite (he shared many of the qualities of other favorite heroes of mine including Plastic Man, the Phantom, Spider-Man, and Daredevil) and The Shield… well, he was there first, wearing the red, white, and blue a full year before Captain America’s debut!

Hangman! Charles Biro on Steel Sterling! Al Camy and Samm Schwartz on Black Jack! Jack Cole on the Comet! Moving from the Golden Age into the Silver Age, there was Simon and Kirby on The Fly and Private Strong, and Superman’s co-creator Jerry Siegel on a host of heroes. It was also not uncommon in those first three decades of MLJ/Archie’s existence to find back-up tales or stories from other genres delivered by legends-in-the-making like Bernie Krigstein or Neal Adams, whose first published work was a panel for a Fly story. And let’s not forget Steve Ditko briefly hopping on board for some 1980s Fly stories and Alex Toth working on The Fox! My professional involvement with the characters resulted in several highly rewarding writing and editing projects. In the late ’90s/early 2000s I had an opportunity to write and unofficially co-edit (helping out editors Scott Fulop and Justin Gabrie) public service announcements featuring the characters. These PSAs primarily focused on re-telling the heroes’ origins, and I spearheaded a movement to depict them in the then-popular Batman: The Animated Series streamlined style. When I became the writer of the Archie’s Weird Mysteries series, I used the Crusaders as featured characters in not one, but two issue-length tales. I got to play with the characters again when writing a special giveaway comic called Archie & Friends and the Shield. The comic was a promotional tie-in to Archie’s first-ever trade paperback collection of classic MLJ reprints which I researched and edited, The Shield: America’s 1st Patriotic Comic Book Hero. The collections The Adventures of The Fly and The Mighty Crusaders: Origin of a Super Team soon followed.

I found the road from MLJ to Red Circle to be truly Among MLJ Companion co-author Paul Castiglia’s Mighty Crusaders-related Now comes this book, The MLJ fascinating—the pre-code, gritty Golden Age giving way to the safer assignments was scripting the giveaway Archie & Friends and the Shield [2002]. Companion, which I am pleased to have written, edited, researched, and compiled alongside my Silver Age and transitioning to the often downright silly 1960s. I confess I loved all the iterations, and discovering those ’60s tales was friend Rik Offenberger, a foremost MLJ historian. I want to thank TwoMorrows publisher John Morrow and Archie president Mike a pure joy for me. Is any story in the history of comics wackier than Pellerito for bringing us into the project, co-author Jon B. Cooke, and the equally loved and reviled Mighty Crusaders epic “Too Many the many folks (Bradley S. Cobb in particular) who helped us along Super-heroes”? the way. To you, the reader, my hope is that you will get a better sense of the history behind these colorful It wasn’t just the heroes, but also the creative talent involved characters, a group of crusaders who are mighty indeed! that floored me. Irv Novick on the Shield! Bob Fujitani on the

The MLJ Companion

by Rik Offenberger The Mighty Crusaders have meant a lot to me for many years. I first met the Crusaders in the early ’80s. They showed up at my local comic shop without much fanfare. There on the shelf was the first copy of Mighty Crusaders #1 from Red Circle Comics. I had never heard of Red Circle, but the art was great and the comic had the look and feel of a high-quality publication. I purchased it and learned to love the Crusaders. I didn’t really know anything about them. On the inside front cover Robin Snyder gave the historical background to the Golden Age of MLJ. It was just like discovering DC or Marvel comics all over again. There was a lot of backstory, and it was fun to get to know all the heroes.

I was saddened when the Crusaders were canceled, and looked forward to their eventual return. They came back with the Impact line of comics. As Image comics was launching and Valiant comics was picking up steam, DC Comics licensed the MLJ heroes from Archie and created a young readers universe, with their own version of the heroes. Unfortunately, Impact did not have the impact DC was looking for and Archie and DC canceled the licensing agreement.

Introduction

Our Mighty Crusade

In-between Archie had a new plan of their own for their heroes; they called it Spectrum Comics. There were articles in the Comic Buyers Guide, The Comics Journal, and Amazing Heroes about the upcoming comics. The new line would compete head-to-head with the As I read the stories I grittier fare coming out of DC, remembered my father Marvel and some independent reading Alan Light’s publishers that had made a Flashback Reprints to me, splash in the “direct sales” sharing his childhood comics comic shop market. Ultimately, with me. They included Pep the management then-inComics and Special Comics. I charge at Archie, taking their also remember checking out core readership into account copies of The Adventures of and their close connection with the Jaguar from the public the Comics Code Authority library. I lived near one of (headed by former Archie the few libraries that carried MLJ Companion co-author Rik Offenberger discovered the MLJ super-heroes via President John Goldwater) comics. They were all older comics donated to the library the ’80s reboot, Red Circle’s Mighty Crusaders #1 [Mar. ’83]. This cover art detail is decided that it was not the by the line’s editor, artist Rich Buckler. right time for this version of the and were quite beaten up, heroes to see the light of day. While the Spectrum line never but it was there I discovered that Archie had super-heroes. I enjoyed the Archie animated cartoon series as a small child but saw print, interviews with the creators behind the project in magazines and on the Internet have kept the legend alive. had no idea that the company published super-heroes, and at the time I never made the connection between the MLJ comics As if to underscore how amazing these heroes are, the above my father read and Archie Comics. is only part of their story! In these pages, Paul Castiglia, Jon B. Cooke, and I hope, with the help of various other writerI also didn’t know that the Shield was the first patriotic historians, fans and creators to bring their rich and ongoing super-hero, or that Dusty pre-dated Bucky. I was unaware that history to life in a way that will inspire new legions the Comet inspired Cyclops or that Simon and Kirby created of Mighty Crusaders fans. the Fly at the dawn of the Silver Age, inspiring Spider-Man. Both were adaptations of Joe Simon’s Silver Spider comic. Introduction

PRELUDE Roots of the MLJ Line

The not-so secret origin of the House of Archie by Jon B. Cooke

The pulps, of course, were inexpensive fiction magazines featuring potboiler stories—often spotlighting heroes such as the Shadow and Doc Savage— behind lavish and compelling cover paintings. As the product was a cheap source of popular entertainment, the pulps enjoyed enormous success from the Roaring Twenties through the Great Depression. Thus, after Eastern’s bankruptcy in 1932, Silberkleit, keenly aware of the machinations of periodical distribution and production, subsequently founded (with Goodman) Mutual Magazine Distributors and a publishing outfit, Newsstand Publications, where he placed protége Goodman as editor for his pulp fare.

You’d think that the brightly colored and inviting content of the comic book might indicate its provenance is graced by rosy hues. But the business roots of the art form, which shares with jazz music and the banjo the distinction of being purely native-born, has a shadowy past that belie its sunny fourcolor appearance. In fact, the origins of the American industry can be found in the black-&-white world of the pulp magazines. As authors Blake Bell and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo write in their Secret History of Marvel Comics, “The pulp pirates of the 1920s and 1930s became the comic book barons of the 1930s and 1940s. All of comic books’ founding fathers rose up from the fetid swamp of cheap By 1934, Silberkleit had run afoul of a moral crusade spearheaded magazines and pulp publishing. Most lived in New York, and the by the incoming administration of New York City mayor Fiorello comic book business they created was just as nasty and incestuous as H. LaGuardia, which banned certain “under the counter” titles, a the pulp business that spawned them.” number of which were distributed by Mutual, forcing Silberkleit to dissolve the company. Newsstand Publications was then sold to Among those founding fathers was Louis Horace Silberkleit, who Goodman, and Silberkleit promptly set up shop with circulation emerged from a childhood on the mean streets of New York’s Lower manager John Leonard Goldwater, also born in the Jewish ghetto East Side to work in newspaper circulation by his early 20s. In 1925, of New York’s Lower East Side (though, after being orphaned at he joined with future DC Comics player Paul Sampliner’s Eastern four, raised in more pleasant climes of uptown foster care), and they Distributing Corporation, which also hired future Marvel Comics formed Winford Publications. The new venture’s business manager publisher Martin Goodman. Eastern handled the distribution of was Maurice Coyne—the Bronx-born Morris Cohen—a notary cigars, candy, and magazines to newsstands, including the sciencepublic and certified public accountant (who seems to have done fiction pulps of Hugo Gernsback, a main account for Silberkleit. work for Hugo Gernsback).

The MLJ Companion

Winford Publications would actually be only one of numerous imprint names for the Silberkleit/Goldwater pulp magazines, as others included Chesterfield, Northwest, and Double Action Magazines. There was also Blue Ribbon, an imprint name which would find a home in the future MLJ comics line. By the late ’30s, the outfit coalesced behind the name Columbia Publications, which continued producing pulps into the decades that followed, well after the form was out of fashion. As Mike Ashley writes, “By the 1930s, the newsstands were saturated with pulp magazines, but already their domination was being challenged by comic books and paperbacks, whilst women readers were lured away by the big slicks.” Indeed, the Silberkleit/Goldwater/Coyne team saw big profits in the nascent form of comics. According to a New York Times article, the trio respectively put up $8,000 as investment into a new comic book venture, which they dubbed with the initials of their first names, M.L.J. Magazines, Inc., with Silberkleit serving as publisher, Goldwater as editor, and Coyne as business manager. Also involved was advertising man Harold Hammond and managing editor Abner Sundell (who would leave in 1941 and be replaced by Robert W. Lowdes) and editorial assistant Harry Shorten. Attorney Samuel Dinerman, who would be associated with Silberkleit for the next two decades, was listed as a business manager and a proprietor in an ownership statement dated Sept. 30, 1939, printed in Blue Ribbon Comics #4 [ June 1940]. Of course, by mid-1939, the comics field was exploding. Though the release of the first periodic comic book, Famous Funnies, was five years prior, the form had become a publishing industry sensation with the inclusion of new material (as the supply of newspaper comic strip reprints was thinning) and, in particular, by the advent of the super-hero, with Superman in Action Comics #1 [ June ’38]. Former Eastern partner Paul Sampliner’s latest co-venture, DC Comics, was scoring big circulation numbers—in Spring ’39, DC’s Batman became the latest rage—and, naturally, his old associates Goodman and Silberkleit wanted in on the action.

(The relationship between Goodman and Silberkleit remains puzzling considering the former partners became competitors in such a cutthroat industry. In the late ’30s, Goodman produced pulp magazines and, years later, a paperback line, with both imprints called Red Circle, the same moniker Archie Comics used for comic book sub-imprints in the ’70s and ’80s. The eminent Marvel historian Michael J. Vassallo shares, “How this swap occurred between these two friends, former partners, and rivals, completely eludes me.” Curious, too, is the role MLJ principal Maurice Coyne played at Marvel—as their accountant! The business manager appears to have fomented a resentment between Marvel’s star creative team, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, and publisher Goodman. Though Simon said it was initially Coyne’s suggestion that the team contract for a 25% cut of profits from their creation, Captain America Comics, as Goodman’s bookkeeper, he let the partners know that they were being bilked by their publisher after the character proved a breakaway hit. Simon later shared, “Maurice took me aside and told me they were putting all the office expenses, all the salaries and everything, on Captain America.” This prompted the pair to surreptitiously prepare material before defecting to rival DC Comics. The CPA also intimated, Simon revealed, that he was unhappy with his MLJ partners.) Both Timely/Marvel and MLJ—or, at least, the proprietors—did not exclusively devote effort to their (albeit lucrative) comics lines. Each also continued publishing for the ever-shrinking pulp market, as well as other magazines, and they would respectively delve now and again into the then burgeoning paperback field. (Goodman, as is well known, would, between the late ’40s and early ’70s, delve into the “men’s sweat” genre, as well as innumerable other categories, with Magazine Management, which became the parent company of Marvel Comics.) Doing its part in the early ’40s, MLJ published Sleek and Close-Up, among others, with each issue featuring pin-ups of winsome ingénues, peppered throughout with risqué cartoons.

As was the case for the many comics publishers who followed industry trailblazers, MLJ would jump on the super-hero Perhaps wary that the fad might quickly dissolve, both Goodman’s bandwagon at the same time as competitor Timely, and both made Timely Comics and Silberkleit’s MLJ Magazines initially employed an impact in the field during the seven or so years of the genre’s the services of comics packaging studios in a bid to keep overhead phenomenal popularity. Though the MLJ costumed crimefighters low. These outfits had sprung up to fill the industry’s sudden need were never runaway hits akin to the Man of Steel and Caped for new material, and Timely tapped Lloyd Jacquet’s Funnies, Inc., Crusader, while the super-hero genre was a hot genre, while MLJ enlisted Harry “A” Chesler’s shop. Within a month Silberkleit and company gave it a solid effort, giving fans of one another, the first respective comics of Goodman (Marvel a cadre of characters still mined to the present day. Comics #1) and MLJ (Blue Ribbon Comics #1) would hit the stands. [Editor’s Note: David Saunders’ website, www.pulpartists.com, and (Soon enough, Timely and MLJ hired their own staffs.) the site ancestry.com were sources of information for this article.] Items on this spread include the original letterhead for the joint Louis Silberkleit/Martin Goodman company, Mutual Magazine Distributors, various pulp magazines published by MLJ from the 1930s into the ’50s, covers for the first respective realeases of MLJ and Timely (later Marvel) Comics, which appeared within a month of one another, in late ’39.

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

THE JAGUAR: Zoologist Ralph Hardy, friend to all animals, picks up a mysterious jaguar belt left by the ancients and transforms into The Jaguar -- complete with superheightened animal powers! THE SHIELD: Chemist Joe Higgins devoted his life to fighting evil after the murder of his father by the diabolical Eraser. Donning a patriotic costume, this G-Man has become an extraordinary hero!

THE COMET: An experimental substance gives young scientist John Dickering powers beyond belief -- including the power of flight! He soon decides to use his newfound powers in the fight for justice!

THE FLY: Attorney Tommy Troy, using the powers of the magic ring given to him by Turan, emissary of the extraterrestrial Fly People, transforms into the Fly. He possesses the strength of 100 men, has the ability to see in all directions and is endowed with super quick insect reflexes -- making him a super guardian of justice!

The MLJ Companion

tradition of crime-fighting,

THE WEB:

Detective Matt

Professor

Burland dons

John Raymond,

a black hood

criminologist

and special

and famed

utility vest to

mystery writer,

fight crime and

dons his

corruption.

web costume as he wages psychological warfare against lawbreakers everywhere!

Fly-Girl: Turan, the emissary of the extraterrestrial Fly People, reacting to the fact that evil forces abound

Key to the Mighty Heroes of MLJ

THE BLACK HOOD: Following a family

throughout the world, decides to bestow a magic ring to another -- this time, actress Kim Brand.

In addition to these core members, the following have also served at one time or another: • The Hangman • Steel Sterling • Private Strong • The Fox • The Darkling • Black Jack • Captain Flag • Mr. Justice • Firefly • The Wizard • Inferno • Bob Phantom • Fireball and more... The Mighty Heroes of MLJ

Chapter One

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

Archie Comics put out a whole slew of super-hero characters beginning in their very first comic publication, Blue Ribbon Comics #1, way back in November 1939. Other super-hero titles they published during the 1940s included Zip Comics, Jackpot Comics, Hangman Comics, Shield-Wizard Comics, and even Pep Comics—which before Archie came along in issue #22, was home to the first-ever patriotic super-hero, the Shield.

Partner Profiles: The Men Behind MLJ Magazines by Rik Offenberger [Editor’s Note: The following originally appeared in slightly different form in Borderline #19 (Mar. 1, 2003).] Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater formed MLJ Magazines and started publishing in November 1939. The company name was derived from the initials of the partners’ first names.

aurice Coyne (Sept. 15, 1901–May 9, 1971) Maurice Coyne had worked with Louis Silberkleit in several publishing ventures, starting with employment from Hugo Gernsback. Maurice Coyne and Louis Silberkleit were partners in Columbia Publishing. Maurice Coyne also served as MLJ’s bookkeeper and chief financial officer.

ouis Horace Silberkleit (Nov. 17, 1900–Feb. 21, 1986) Louis Silberkleit had a college degree from St. John’s University, was a licensed registered pharmacist, and also had a law degree from New York Law School. Silberkleit was regarded as having an uncanny knack as a circulator and was known for setting very tight distributions and being an extremely tough negotiator with printers, distributors, and separators. He worked for a pulp chain in the late 1920s and, in the early 1930s, Silberkleit, Martin Goodman, and Maurice Coyne started Columbia Publications. Martin Goodman soon

MLJ Comics Index Black Hood Comics Winter 1943-44 to Summer 1946 #9–19

Blue Ribbon Comics (Blue Ribbon Mystery Comics #9-18) November 1939 to March 1942 #1–22

Hangman Comics Spring 1942 to Fall 1943 #2–8

Jackpot Comics Spring 1941 to Spring 1943 #1–9

Pep Comics

January 1940 to January 1948 #1–65

Shield-Wizard Comics Summer 1940 to Spring 1944 #1–13

Special Comics Winter 1941-41 #1

Top-Notch Comics December 1939 to June 1944 #1–45

Zip Comics

February 1940 to Summer 1944 #1–47 Next page is a circa 1943 photo of the three founders of MLJ, a company name derived from the initials of the owners’ first names. From left: Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John Goldwater. Note the painting.

left that company and it was owned solely by Silberkleit and Coyne. Columbia was one of the last pulp companies, putting out its last pulp in the late ’50s (only Pines’ Ranch Romance ran longer).

ohn L. Goldwater (Feb. 14, 1906–Feb. 26, 1999) John Goldwater grew up as an orphan in Harlem, New York. As a teenager, he traveled the country working odd jobs. Eventually returning to New York, he began working loading magazines at the docks, before starting at Independent News. Goldwater served as editor-in-chief and co-publisher for MLJ. He was focused primarily on the editorial end of the business. Goldwater was one of the founders of the Comics Magazine Association of America, and served as its president for 25 years. The CMAA is best known to comics fans for its Comics Code Authority. He was also a national commissioner of the Anti-Defamation League. All of them—Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John Goldwater—had met when they worked at Independent News for Paul Sampliner. Sampliner, along with Jack Liebowitz and Harry Donnenfeld of DC Comics, founded Independent News, which was, in turn, the distribution company of DC Comics. Louis Silberkleit worked on some publishing ventures with his friend Martin Goodman, who was a founder of Timely/Marvel Comics.

The MLJ Companion

Chapter One: MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

Maurice Coyne

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

LOUIS SILBERKLEIT

JOHN GOLDWATER

for Pep Comics until March 1944, when Archie became the dominant feature; the Shield continued in Pep Comics until Jan. 1948. Also of note is the fact that the Shield predates Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s Captain America by 15 months, and his sidekick Dusty from Pep Comics #11 ( January 1941) predates Bucky by three months.

Martin Goodman and Louis Silberkleit, along with Maurice Coyne, were one of the earliest publishers of pulp magazines, with their company Columbia Publications. Columbia published Westerns, science-fiction, detective, and romance pulp magazines. Many writers who went on to become famous got their start working for Louis Silberkleit at Columbia Publications. Among these were Harold Robbins, Isaac Asimov, and Harry Sinclair Drago, to name a few.

In December 1941, MLJ published Archie Andrews’ first adventure, by writer Vic Bloom and artist Bob Montana. “America’s newest boyfriend,” Archibald “Chick” Andrews, first appeared in Pep Comics #22 (Dec. 1941).

John Goldwater started his own company, Periodicals for Export, Inc., and he started buying unsold periodicals, mainly pulp magazines, from publisher Louis Silberkleit and exporting them for sale abroad. Observing the success of the Superman character in the infant comic book industry in 1939, Goldwater joined Silberkleit and Maurice Coyne in launching a magazine publishing company.

As Archie’s popularity grew, MLJ Magazines changed its name to Archie Comic Publications. In the mid ’50s, the advent of television caused the pulp magazine industry to suffer, as television became a dominant form of entertainment. With slumping sales, Bob Montana’s art graces this splash page of the first “Archie” story, from Pep Louis Silberkleit and Maurice Comics #22 [Dec. 1941]. Archibald Andrews, of course, changed the fate of the Their first comic was Blue RibCoyne decided to discontinue MLJ comics outfit, so much so they became Archie Comic Publications in 1946. bon Comics, published Nov. 1939; Columbia Publications. Coyne the first issue was half color with the remaining pages in red tints. In stayed on at Archie as chief financial officer until he retired in the Dec. 1939, Top-Notch Comics was introduced. Then, in Jan. 1940, 1970s. Silberkleit and John Goldwater continued publishing Archie Pep Comics debuted featuring the Shield, America’s first patriotic titles, sharing the same office, and eating lunch together comic book hero, by writer Harry Shorten (also the company’s man- for their entire business career. aging editor) and artist Irv Novick. The Shield was the cover feature

Biography of Harry Shorten, MLJ Comics editor by Robert L. Lemle

he began a career in writing and publishing. His first published book was How to Watch a Football Game, a guide for husbands to assist teaching their wives the finer points of their interest in the sport.

[Mr. Lemle is the grandson of Harry Shorten.] Harry Shorten (Oct. 5, 1914–Jan. 14, 1991) Born to Russian/Polish immigrants, Joseph and Leah Shorten, in New York City, Harry Shorten attended Thomas Jefferson High School and New York University in the early ’30s, where he starred as a halfback for their football team. He was nicknamed “Streaky.” He was married to Rose Sadoff and had two children, Linda and Sue. His grandchildren are Robert and Laura Lemle, and Andrew and Jonathan Proctor. After a brief professional football career, 78

Harry Shorten in an undated photograph.

In addition to being the creative force behind The Shield and Archie comics, he created Tippy Teen comics and the newspaper feature There Outta Be a Law (with partner Al Fagaly). In the early ’60s, he founded Midwood/ Tower Publications, publishing paperback pocketbooks and Afternoon TV Magazine (and eventually Wallace Wood’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents under the Tower name). In the early ’70s, he created the Daytime TV Soap Awards, honoring the daytime drama actors of the time. The MLJ Companion

All The Way With MLJ!

The saga of the super-heroes who paved the way for Archie Andrews and the Riverdale Gang by Ron Goulart [Editor’s Note: This material was originally printed, in slightly different form, in the magazine Comics Collector, in the issues for Summer and Winter 1984. Thanks to Brian K. Morris for a retyping assist.]

“Give Me An ‘M,’ Give Me An…”

In 1984, the Archie Comics folks again resurrected some of their old-time super-heroes and costumed crime fighters. By way of their Red Circle line of comic books, you could once again follow the adventures of Steel Sterling, the Shield, the Black Hood, Mr. Justice, and several other heroic chaps who first set up shop forty and more years ago. I got a kick out of seeing some of my boyhood idols cavorting again and I wished Red Circle well. The only trouble was, for someone like me who grew up following these fellows in their original Golden Age incarnations, these latter-day Mighty Crusaders were too slick and sensible. I missed those old illogical, sometimes outright wacky heroes of my youth. I missed, too, the second-banana good guys—such as Mr. Satan, TyGor, the Firefly, Captain Valor, etc.—who probably wouldn’t even get revived this time around. And I missed the eclectic look of the magazines of that long ago and more innocent age. Let me, in the following pages, show you what I mean. When these particular heroes first came forth, Archie hadn’t even been born and the publishers called themselves MLJ Magazines, Inc. Less formal than MGM, the company took its title from the first-name initials of its proprietors. They were Morris Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John Goldwater, and they entered the fast-growing funny-book field late in 1939. The artwork and scripts for the earliest issues of the new titles were provided by the sweatshop run by Harry “A” Chesler. While some gifted people worked for the enterprising Chesler, it doesn’t look as though he sent in his first team to produce material for Morris, Louis, and John.

Blue Ribbon Comics

The MLJ line got off to a rather shaky start with the launching of Blue Ribbon Comics. The first issue had a November cover date, and its star was not a super-hero but a dog. “Rang-A-Tang,” billed as “The Wonder Dog,” was right there on the cover acting courageous, and his six-page adventure started off the issue. Rin Tin Tin, who’d made his movie debut way back in the silent days of 1916, was undoubtedly the inspiration for this less-than-scintillating feature. Most of the other strips, such as “Dan Hastings,” “Buck Stacey,” and “Burk of the Briney,” weren’t much snappier. Science-fiction hero Hastings wasn’t even brand new, having already done his stuff in Star Comics for another company as early as two years before. MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

About the only bright spot in the issue was “Crime on the Run,” a lively Gang Busters sort of feature turned out by a young fellow named Jack Cole, later famed for creating Plastic Man. Although he favored big-foot gag cartooning, Cole was already developing an effective adventure style. He also, unlike most of the Chesler colleagues with whom he shared the magazine, understood that comic books were different from newspaper strips and pulp magazines.

At top is the cover of the very first MLJ comic book, Blue Ribbon Comics #1 [Nov. 1939] featuring the Rin Tin Tin knock-off, Rang-A-Tang, with cover art possibly by Edd Ashe. Above is a “Bob Phantom” panel from Blue Ribbon #2, art by Irv Novick.

Charles Biro, like Cole an artist/writer who’d leave his mark on comics (he later created Crimebuster and Airboy, and drew the original Daredevil, as well as editing and often writing and drawing for the ultra-popular Crime Does Not Pay), also showed up in that second issue. His “Scoop Cody,” dealing with an ace reporter, expired after two go-rounds, but “Corporal Collins,” about a “two-fisted American in the French infantry,” fared somewhat better. In fact, for a short time the redheaded Jimmy Cagney-type soldier was the star of the faltering magazine. The third issue was much the same as the two preceding it. But the fourth, which didn’t hit the stands until five long months later (cover-dated June 1940), was a great leap forward. Coming to their senses just in time, MLJ had dumped Chesler and hired some of his better people away from him. “Thrill to these smashing new features,” proclaimed ads in the other MLJ titles. There were three more by now: Top-Notch, Pep, and Zip. Gone were Scoop Cody, Buck Stacey, Dan Hastings, and their ilk, replaced by Hercules, the Fox, the Green Falcon, Ty-Gor, and Doc Strong. Showcased on the cover of issue #4 was the feisty Corporal Collins, blazing away with a machine-gun pistol in one hand and tossing a grenade with the other. In the midst of all this excitement, you could almost overlook the fact that Blue Ribbon still didn’t have a first-rate super-hero on the staff.

As Ron Goulart writes, the bright spot of Blue Ribbon Comics #1 was Jack Cole’s “Crime on the Run.” Cole, of course, would go on to greatness as the creator of the innovative super-hero/humor comic book character, Plastic Man. Above is the opening page.

Cole’s page layouts and his staging of scenes take advantage of the format. Blue Ribbon’s first super-hero arrived in the second issue. He wore a green costume, green cowl with wings over the ears, and a scarlet cape. His name was “Bob Phantom.” That doesn’t seem to be too striking a name for a chap who fancies himself “the Scourge of the Underworld.” A crime-buster with a first name is just too folksy to be formidable. You probably wouldn’t be frightened by Bill Batman or Fred Superman, either. Actually, Bob seems to have come by his name because the Chesler shop had it left over from an earlier character. Another Bob Phantom, a mustached magician in this case, had appeared way back in the first issue of the aforementioned Star Comics (Feb. 1937), then vanished. This new Bob P., drawn by Irving Novick, stuck around for two issues and then defected to Top-Notch Comics.

The closest thing was Hercules, written by Joe Blair and drawn by Elmer Wexler. For this one, Blair went all the way back to Greek mythology. “Hercules, strongest man in all history, earned a place on Mt. Olympus by wiping out the evils of ancient Greece. Now Zeus has ordered him back to Earth to rid the modern world of wars, gangsters and racketeers!!” The gimmick here, somewhat highbrow for a lowly comic book, was that Herc would tackle modern equivalents of the original 12 Labors of Hercules. Unfortunately, he only got as far as the fifth before he was dropped from the line-up. “The Fox” was a costumed crime fighter, but he didn’t have a super power to his name. In everyday life, he was Paul Patton, “former allaround athlete at Penn State,” who was now working as a newspaper photographer. Written by the ubiquitous Blair, the strip was initially drawn by Irwin Hasen. Younger readers, who are familiar only with Hasen’s newspaper strip Dondi, may find it hard to believe he once turned out effective comic-book adventure stuff. He did, though, and the Fox benefited from his loose, quirky style. Like Cole, Hasen thought in terms of the comic book page, and his layouts explored possibilities overlooked by some of his stodgier contemporaries. His only problem was with the Fox’s jet-black costume. It took Hasen a couple of issues to realize a hero’s costume is Hercules by writer Joe Blair and artist Elmer Wexler debuted in Blue Ribbon Comics #4 [June 1940], though the character completed only five labors.

The MLJ Companion

Three other adventure features included in early Blue Ribbon Comics were (left to right) Doc Savage swipe Doc Strong; Medieval knight the Green Falcon; and Mowgli wannabe, Ty-Gor, Son of the Tiger.

a fantasy thing that doesn’t have wrinkles or baggy knees. Despite his name, “The Green Falcon” was not a super guy, but a green-clad knight who hung out in the days of Richard the Lion-Hearted and behaved in the Robin Hood manner.

Like the Spectre, Mr. Justice has pupil-less Little-Orphan-Annie eyes when he’s in his evil-combating mode. Off-duty, he assumes “the form of a mortal man” and goes around as a handsome blond fellow in a business suit.

“Doc Strong” was a science-fiction feature, and Doc himself was a famous scientist who went around stripped to the waist and wearing the trousers from one of his old business suits. It was set one hundred years in the future when “more than half the world has been wiped out, and cities lie in crumbling ruins and then a new menace arises—a vast barbaric horde from some forgotten corner of Asia descends on a trembling world.”

During his relatively brief career, Mr. Justice, sometimes referred to as the Royal Wraith, combated such villains as Rialb (“Blair” spelled backwards), a mystic who summoned up “demoniacal monsters” to do his bidding; Zarro the Zombie Master, a green-skinned voodoo man; a crazed doctor who brought executed criminals back to life; and a green fellow named Ribo who possessed “the most hideous organ of sight ever seen on Earth—the evil eye!!”

The comic books of the Golden Age provided work for unemployed artists from other areas, including newspaper strips. “TyGor,” about an orphaned lad raised by tigers in the Malay jungles, was drawn by one such. George Storm had done a successful strip, “Bobby Thatcher,” until 1937 and then retired to try his hand at being a gentleman farmer in Oklahoma. By 1939, he was ready to get back into cartooning, and he returned to New York. We’ll have more to say about him when we get to his better-known MLJ creation, “The Hangman.”

Some of Mr. Justice’s antagonists were so awesome that the Royal Wraith couldn’t quell them in a single episode and had to battle them over several issues. One such was called the Dictator. He’s quite obviously Hitler, but in those months before America entered World War II, many comic book publishers were reluctant to have him appear under his real name, although it’s unlikely the Führer would have sued for defamation of character. The payoff is that the Dictator turns out to be Satan in more-or-less human form.

Finally, in issue #9 (Feb. 1941), Blue Ribbon Comics signed on somebody who could pass as a super-hero. His only flaw was that, like the Spectre over at DC, he was dead. “Mr. Justice,” created by the busy Joe Blair and artist Sam Cooper, was actually the spirit of Prince James, heir to the throne of England and murdered “exactly 200 years ago… but the legend has it his spirit arose from his body and strangled the men who murdered him.” Cooper’s notions of what life in 18th century England was like are quite interesting, and he draws the prince and his murderers wearing armor and chain mail. At any rate, the historic castle where the deed was done is, in 1941, “torn down and carted away, stone by stone… loaded aboard a ship and sent on its journey to America.” We can assume Blair got his inspiration for this part of the plot from the movie The Ghost Goes West. En route to America, the castle-laden ship is torpedoed by a Nazi sub, and this somehow liberates the spirit of Prince James. “Free! I’m free!” he exclaims as his soul soars upward from the sinking wreckage, decked out in cape and tights.

Though relatively non-descript in his Golden Age incarnation, the Fox, which debuted in Blue Ribbon #4 [June 1940], has proven remarkably resilient in the MLJ pantheon, especially in today’s Dark Cirle line.

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

a dagger entering an innocent heart with such explosive bloodiness. After Mr. J came “Inferno,” who made his debut in #13 ( June 1941). Also known as the Flame Breather, Inferno had first turned up as a villain over in Zip Comics. Reformed by Steel Sterling, he went straight and was rewarded with a strip of his own. His only wild talent was being able to spout flame out of his mouth. The magazine’s last hero came along three issues later and was of the super-patriot persuasion. Tom Townsend was just another drunken playboy until an enormous eagle carried him off to its mountain lair. Tom’s father, “wealthy inventor of the Army’s new bomb sight,” had been kidnapped and tortured by a sinister villain known only as the Black Hand. A cadaverous fellow with deadwhite skin, the Black Hand dressed in a hooded purple robe. He came by his name because of his right hand: “It is black… diseased! A disease easily capable of being transmitted by penetrating the skin with my claws!” In order to make the stubborn senior Townsend talk, his son is abducted as he comes staggering out of the exclusive Crane Club. Unfortunately, the Black Hand loses his temper and strangles Tom’s father. He’s about to do the same thing to the young playboy, when an eagle smashes into the rundown mansion and carries Tom off in his talons.

Mr. Justice was introduced in Blue Ribbon Comics #9 [Feb. 1941] and he was, in actuality, Prince James of England, an 11th century noble, whose spirit was resurrected just in time for World War II when the “Royal Wraith” made battle with the Devil himself to save the soul of our world. The hero would vanish from the Golden Age scene by 1943.

Hardly was this villain bested when up popped the Green Ghoul, a scaly chap with three bloodshot eyes. He’s devoted to “committing murder and atrocity as fast as his wretched mind can conceive of new plots.” Mr. Justice needed a full three months to overcome the Green Ghoul. They meet for their final showdown in “the void between the spirit world and the real world.” Out-punching his rival, Justice sends him at last into the sea “to sink to the foul depths from which he sprang.”

While the Hand goes on a rampage of sabotage and ruthless crime, Tom stays in the mountains with the eagle and “develops the muscles he had allowed to degenerate.” One day, after the former wastrel has shaped up sufficiently, the eagle brings him an American flag. “This is a symbol of my destiny—a destiny I vow to fulfill!” He whips up a star-spangled costume, “and so Tom Townsend becomes Captain Flag!” His first target is, of course, the Black Hand. In the battle that ensues, the Hand is knocked cold and seems to perish in the fire that sweeps his hideout. “But is the Black Hand really dead? See for yourself in the next issue!”

Two late arrivals to Blue Ribbon were Captain Flag and former Steel Sterling villain and now hero, Inferno (seen with a lick of flame coming from his mouth, below).

Sam Cooper rendered all this half-baked horror in a toothsome style that never missed an opportunity to be excessive. His ghouls and demons are all appropriately loathsome, their twisted, gaping mouths jampacked with such a spiky array of fangs that feasting on anything but human flesh would have been out of the question. He never passed up a chance to depict his fiends slavering and drooling, and few could draw

The MLJ Companion

About a year after DC Comics debuted its avenger from beyond the grave, the Spectre, MLJ entrusted writer Joe Blair and artist Sam Cooper to create Mr. Justice, the “Royal Wraith,” whose epic struggle wasn’t just against Hitler, but Satan himself! Note the innovative two-page spread from Blue Ribbon #13 [June ’41] at right.

The Hand does come back several times. In issue #22, Captain Flag captures him once again and thwarts a piracy scheme of his. “You’re going to hang, Black Hand,” Flag informs him. “Since you wanted to live as a pirate you shall die as one.” Sure enough, in the last frame we see the Hand, purple robe and all, dangling from a yardarm. “What adventures await Captain Flag now?” asks a caption. “None” is the correct answer, since this turned out to be the last issue of Blue Ribbon.

Top-Notch Comics

The second MLJ title was TopNotch Comics, launched a month after Blue Ribbon and with a cover date on its initial issue of December 1939. Although the magazine boasted only one super-hero when it commenced, by the end of its first year, Top-Notch would house a bunch of them. As stated before, the material in the earliest issues of the MLJ titles was produced by the pioneer sweatshop run by Harry “A” Chesler. Although he’d been in operation since 1936, turning out stuff for various publishers, Chesler doesn’t seem to have made much of an effort to keep up with what was going on in the burgeoning comic book business. The text and artwork MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

his outfit churned out in 1939 was very much like the product of three years earlier, for the most part lowbrow humor and illustrated pulp that indicated little comprehension of the nature of the new field, and no realization of how important the coming of “Superman” in 1938 had been. The only true super-hero cooked up for the first issue was “The Wizard,” also known as the Man with the Super Brain. Originally, he performed his deeds wearing black tie and tails, a cape, and a red domino mask. In that clean-shaven era, he was one of the few comic book mystery men who sported a moustache. The Wiz’s specialty was thwarting “plots against the government” and invasions. In civilian life he was Blane Whitney, polo-playing scion of one of America’s first families. “With his super-brain and photographic mind, the Wizard is able to visualize faraway happenings. With these mental powers and his super-strength, he ferrets out plots against the U.S.” In his earliest battles, combating such foreign scourges as the Jatsonian invaders and the equally nasty Borentals, the Wizard used many amazing weapons of his own invention. These included Secret Formula F 22 X, the H2-VX-0 Ray, and

his Dynamagno-Saw Ray Projector. The initial artist to depict the superpatriotic adventures of this dapper good guy was Edd Ashe, Jr. Al Camy took over after a few issues and, in TopNotch #7 (Aug. 1940), designed him a new costume. It consisted of blue tunic and tights, red shorts, and cape. The red mask was retained, along with the moustache. In this episode, by the way, the Wizard teamed up with Pep Comics’ Shield to thwart the invasion plans of the Mosconians. Apparently not satisfied with wearing an outfit very much like that of DC’s Superman, the Wizard next set out to emulate DC’s Batman. In #8 he acquired a feisty young companion. A concluding caption proclaims, “The Wizard fights alone no longer! Now side by side with the Man with the Super Brain is Roy, the Super Boy, the most astounding youth in all history! Together these two fight all evil.” All these improvements ought to have assured the Wiz of a long, fruitful career as star of the magazine. A bit further along we’ll see what happened in #9. Most of the other features offered in Top-Notch’s premiere issue were pretty lackluster. Jack and Otto Binder, brothers who were artist and writer respectively, turned out “Scott Rand,” about a Brick Bradford type who jaunted into the past in his time car. There was “Air Patrol,” a dull aviation strip; “‘Lucky’ Coyne,” a dull detective strip; and “The West Pointer,” a dull military strip. For magic fans, there was “The Mystic,” which offered a turbaned stage magician who dabbled in detection between shows. Each of these ran five or six pages, crowded eight panels onto a page, and had layouts about

as visually exciting as your maiden aunt’s wallpaper. Charles Biro, a man destined to shake up the whole comic book business, contributed “Swift of the Secret Service.” At this point, he was still working in the drab Chesler house style. About the only bright spot was provided by Jack Cole, who wrote and drew a true-crime feature called “Man-Hunters.” Cole, who also had a full page of gag cartoons in the issue, did the crime thing in his still developing straight style. Unlike many of his sweatshop colleagues, he was already experimenting with provocative layouts and more effective ways of staging and telling his stories. Another gifted, and still often underrated, artist joined the crew in the second issue. Mort Meskin contributed “Dick Storm,” about a clean-cut young fellow whose “fame as an adventurer has spread far and wide.” Meskin, who’d been influenced by such excellent pulp illustrators as Edd Cartier and Herbert Morton Stoops, was simply a much better artist than most of the others in those early issues. He, too, made use of inventive layouts, and the storytelling techniques he developed are better than the stories he was forced to tell. The aforementioned Bob Phantom became part of the Top-Notch cast in issue #3, the magazine’s second super-hero. Somewhere about this time, Biro and several of his shop colleagues were wooed away from Chesler to go to work directly for MLJ. The magazines immediately began to look more like contemporary comic books and less like samplers of what was to be found in the bottom of Chesler’s trunk. A new science-fiction feature was added in #4. “Streak Chandler” was set on Mars and drawn by Don Lynch. “Galahad,” an Arthurian adventure by Lin Streeter, got going in #5. “The Mystic” was by this time calling himself “Kardak” and had picked up “uncanny, unexplainable powers, which are fortunately used for the suppression of evil.” Yet another superman was added in Top-Notch #8 (Sept. 1940). “The Firefly” was the creation of writer Harry Shorten and artist Bob Wood. His real name was Harley Hudson, and he was one of those chaps who work hard and long to become a good guy. A trained chemist and biologist, he had already devoted years to study and training when we first met him in his laboratory in the Middle From top are Top-Notch Comics characters The Wizard, Galahad, Dick Storm, and Karnak. An early comic book crossover event took place in Top-Notch #5 [May ’40], which guest-starred Pep Comics’ the Shield and the Midshipman in the epic “Mosconian Menace,” which continued in Pep #5 [June ’40], where the Wizard and the West Pointer would appear. At right is the Wizard.

The MLJ Companion

West. “At last,” he exclaimed, “I’ve discovered the secret of the tremendous strength of insects!” The secret, which sounded quite a lot like what Charles Atlas was peddling on the back covers of many of the comic books of the day, involved the developing of “wonderful muscular coordination.” While HH was explaining all this to himself, the lights in his lab went out and some fireflies flickered in. “That’s what I’ll be,” he decided. “A firefly! Lighting up the darkness that shrouds the underworld!” The Firefly fought crime for the next couple of years, folding his wings after #27 (May 1942). Among the sinister villains he illuminated and overcame were Dr. Dread, the Mummy (twice), a great white shark, and a killer whose victims “were torn and ripped by the claws of some huge, unspeakable monster!” When Wood abandoned the strip, the artwork chores were assumed by Warren King. The month after the Firefly’s debut, obviously in the grip of costumed hero fever, Top-Notch introduced yet another. He was to prove to be one of MLJ’s most successful and enduring characters. No match for Archie, of course, but pretty durable. “The Black Hood” was another fellow who had to work long and hard to become a costumed hero. While a uniformed cop, Kip Burland was framed by a sinister green-faced villain aptly known as the Skull. Discharged from the force in disgrace, Burland was taken for a ride by minions of the vindictive Skull. Left in the woods to die, he was found by a kindly old hermit. A self-taught scientist and philosopher, the hermit had also been wronged by the Skull, and he

decided to turn young Burland into a super-crime fighter—someone who would defeat the Skull and then use his “abilities against all crime and criminals!” Burland underwent months of rigid training, “both to rebuild his strength and to learn all of science and all of knowledge, in order to make himself the world’s greatest fighter against crime!” Donning the hood that gave him his name, along with yellow tunic, black shorts, and yellow tights, he went forth. The Hood finally confronted the Skull at a fashionable society masquerade ball. The scoundrel managed to attack his female victim and used a poison pellet on her that caused her skin to shrivel and turn green until “her face is a caricature of the Skull!” The Black Hood unmasked his opponent, who’d been attending the party in drag, and turned him over to the law. But the Skull, true to master criminal tradition, kept coming back. He recurred in several issues until the Black Hood succeeded in getting him sent to the hot seat. As the Hood’s career progressed, he tangled with a succession of other bizarre foes: the vicious Panther Man; Mark Honey, “famed detective by day… ruthless murderer by night”; the Mist, “who was able to dissolve his body into a gaseous mist”; Scorpio, billed as the Astrologer of Death; the Mad Killer of the Opera, etc. Al Camy was the original artist. Once the Hood came aboard, the Wizard was relegated to second-banana status. He, his super brain, and Roy were dropped after issue #27 (May 1942). In the non-super area Top-Notch added and subtracted characters. “Wings Johnson,” as his name implied, was an aviator. Redheaded “Fran Frazer,” drawn by Irving Novick, was a globe-trotting newsperson and a champion of women’s rights. As a caption explained, At top is Top-Notch’s most successful character, one who spawned both a daily radio program and a pulp magazine series (both short-lived), the Black Hood (debuting in #9 [Oct. ’40]). The less known Firefly premiered in #8 [Sept. ’40], lasting until #27 [May ’42].

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

didn’t get pink slips; all the other heroes were let go. In their places you found funny stuff. The new star of the magazine was a Li’l Abner simulacrum with the tasteful name of “Pokey Oakey.” This was the creation of Don Dean, longtime ghost on the Big Chief Wahoo newspaper strip, and the first episodes looked as though they might be recycled samples of an unsold strip of his own. Dean, a pretty good artist, if not a subtle humorist, also contributed “Señor Siesta.” The señor was a diminutive Mexican fruit peddler who talked like a Mel Blanc Latin and got into humorous misadventures with bandits, politicians, and long-legged senoritas. Bob Montana was responsible for “Percy,” another teenage epic. Top-Notch’s resident dumb, sexy blonde was a lady known as “Suzie.” Eventually the magazine added “Gloomy Gus,” about a homeless ghost, “Stupidman and the 3 Monkey-Teens,” which defies description, and “Dotty & Ditto.” This last starred a little blonde cowgirl, her parrot, and her little Indian boyfriend. Bill Woggon, the “Katy Keene” man, was in charge and seemed to have a good deal of fun. With issue #30 (Nov. 1942), the Black Hood became the only straight character in the book. He probably felt like a clergyman stranded in a boarding house full of carnival performers, but he stuck to his guns until #44 (Feb. 1944). After one more issue the magazine became just plain Laugh Comics. A sturdy fellow, the Hood survived for another two years in his own quarterly. In his final days, drawn by Novick, he shed his costume to work in civvies as a hard-boiled private eye.

Pep Comics she “has faced many weird adventures in foreign lands, and always she has proven that, in spite of her sex, she is a better man than any of her male rivals.” Fran held on for 17 issues. For sports fans, there was “The St. Louis Kid,” a heavyweight boxer whose path to the crown was strewn with pitfalls. On one occasion, for instance, he was forced to go several rounds with a gorilla. Lin Streeter began the feature, newspaper veteran George Storm followed, and Archie creator Bob Montana went a few rounds. In the summer of 1943, anticipating a trend that would sweep through comic books a few years later at the end of the Second World War, the magazine converted to humor. With the bold slogan, “We Dare To Do It! A Joke Book That’s Really Funny!” issue #28 ( July 1942) appeared under the new title Top-Notch Laugh. Only the Black Hood and Kardak Before being renamed Top-Notch Laugh Comics which included adventure strips as an afterthought, the title featured some nascent work of Jack Cole by way of his “Man-Hunters” series, a trio of episodes appearing in Top-Notch #1–3. Percy Plummer, an Archie-type teenaged character, was introduced in Top-Notch Laugh #28 [July ’42].

A month after launching Top-Notch, MLJ introduced its third title. Pep Comics, with the liveliest name so far and a Jan. 1940 cover date, boasted two super-heroes in its initial line-up. One was billed as a “G-Man extraordinary,” the other as “the most astonishing man on the face of the Earth.” The magazine wouldn’t introduce its most successful character for almost another two years, a redheaded, buck-toothed lad who was destined to topple all the MLJ heroes and even cause the publishing company to change its name to his. In those fool’s-paradise years before his ominous advent, quite a few heroes, costumed and otherwise, flourished in the four-color pages of Pep Comics. The star of the new magazine was “The Shield.” The first red-whiteand-blue super-patriot in comics, he paved the way for such later star-spangled heroes as Uncle Sam, Minute Man, and Captain America. Irving Novick was the artist, Harry Shorten the scriptwriter, on these adventures of the extraordinary G-Man. In everyday life, redheaded Joe Higgins worked as an FBI agent, and the only person who knew of his alternate identity was J. Edgar Hoover himself. Hoover appeared in the early episodes to send the Shield

The MLJ Companion

out on his spy-smashing missions. Initially, we were told that Higgins’ super-powers came from his uniform. “This uniform, of his own secret construction, not only is bullet and flame-proof, but gives him power to perform extraordinary feats of physical daring and courage. Wearing his shield, he has the speed of a bullet and the strength of a Hercules. With these powerful forces, he shields the U.S. Government from all enemies. The four white stars on the field of blue signify to what he has devoted his life—truth, justice, patriotism, and courage.” In the spring of 1940, over in Detective Comics, Batman took on Robin, the Boy Wonder, to assist him in his war on crime. This precipitated a mini-trend among his costumed contemporaries, and soon many of them were picking up youthful sidekicks, too. The Shield got his in Pep #11 ( Jan. 1941) in the person of a redheaded lad named Dusty, the Boy Detective. The new team devoted their next several months to combating a master criminal and super-saboteur known as the Vulture. A cloaked, pointy-eared chap, he was especially fond of plunging daggers into his victims. Though he’d commenced his crime career with pink flesh, the Vulture showed up green in later issues. It added nothing to his charm. With the coming of the Second World War, the exploits of the Shield and Dusty grew bloodier and more violent. The Axis villains they started confronting were especially bloodthirsty. There was a vicious Nazi called the Strangler, an even more rotten Japanese known as the Fang, and, worst of all, the Hun.

The Shield has proved to be the most resilient MLJ super-hero since first appearing in Pep Comics #1 [Jan. 40]. By #11 [Jan. ’41], Dusty, the Spectacular Boy Detective, joined up with Joe Higgins to become a permanent sidekick. Pep #15 [May ’41] introduced the Shield G-Man Club.

While all this was going on, Novick was also adding quite a few “Good Girl Art” touches: upthrust bosoms, bondage, stocking tops, etc. Earlier, in the midst of the Shield’s second year, the artwork had changed quite a bit. There were now more action, more odd angle shots, and improved anatomy. Most of this new flamboyance was due to the hiring of the unsung Pierce Rice to pencil the strip. The Shield hung on in Pep until #65 ( Jan. 1948).

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

Pep’s other pioneer super-hero was “The Comet,” written and drawn by Jack Cole. Not one of the other new features in the magazine opened as exuberantly as his. Cole’s splash panel shows the brightly costumed hero whizzing across the night sky and nearly flying off the page. Cole was also the only one to provide his own blurb: “Smash adventures of the most astonishing man on the face of the Earth.” Even in those days, when supermen were proliferating like mushrooms in a damp cellar, the Comet was rather unusual. For one thing, he killed people, lots of them, and usually with glee. That might not seem odd in these days of splatter comics, but back then it was. John Dickering is a young scientist who discovers “a gas that is fifty times lighter than hydrogen.” He finds that “by injecting small doses of the gas in his bloodstream, his body becomes light enough to make leaps through the air!” Never mind

In his maiden adventure, the Comet goes after a gang who are using typhoid fever germs to run a murder-for-insurance racket. When he catches up with the underlings, he lifts his visor and announces grimly, “Prepare to face your maker!” And then, “amid screams of terror, the cruel murderers melt into nothingness!” Next, the Comet grabs the Big Boss and flies high above the gentleman’s stately suburban home. The villain pleads to be let down and the Comet says, “As you wish, doctor! The world has too many of your kind already!!” and drops him. Cole produced three more episodes of the Comet saga before going on to other things. In his final sequence, Cole, who’d grown up in the mining country of Pennsylvania, had his vindictive hero deal with a crooked mine owner whose workers were being stricken with silicosis because of poor working conditions. The sneaky owner ended up exploding, which showed what happened if you tried to toss a stick of dynamite at the Comet. In those distant days before relevance had been invented, there were comic book heroes who dealt, albeit in vigilante style, with social issues and working-class problems. Cole drew several such. After Cole’s departure, the Comet toned down some. Bob Wood drew him for a spell, then Lin Streeter. The Comet’s violent beginnings eventually caught up with him, however, and, as we’ll see shortly, he became the first super-hero to get killed in the line of duty.

what may happen if a strong wind comes up. Dickering further discovers “that the gas accumulates in the eyes and throws off two powerful beams—these rays, when they cross each other, cause whatever he looks at to disintegrate completely!!!” Glass is the only thing these cross-eyed rays won’t penetrate, so young Dickering fashions a glass shield to wear and, while he’s at it, a costume as well. The outfit is red-black-and-yellow with stars and crescent moons all over the tunic, making him look something like a streamlined Merlin. “Thus is born the Comet!”

The “Press Guardian” started his career as a costumed hero and then, in Pep #2, became one of those fellows, like the Spirit and Midnight, who fought crime clad in fedora, business suit, and face mask. He also changed his alter-ego name. For his first adventure, he was a reporter named Flash Calvert, who donned a winged costume and fought the enemies of the free press as The Falcon (don’t ask why the strip was called “The Press Guardian” instead of “The Falcon”). As of his second go-round, with the talented Mort Meskin taking over the drawing, PG was “Perry Chase, playboy son of the publisher of the Daily Express.” His early exploits involved tackling a Nazi-style bund that resented the way the Express was reporting the activities of their dictator and were out to destroy the paper. Since it was 1940 and we were not yet at war with anybody, the dictator’s name was Von Krasner and his country was

Along with the Shield, Pep Comics also featured such adventure strips as (top left) “The Comet,” (center inset top) “Sergeant Boyle,” (center inset above) “Bentley of Scotland Yard,” and the back-up cast of Pep characters, (below, left to right) detective Fu Chang, the Fireball, the Press Guardian (also known as the Falcon), and Danny and Snapper (of “Danny in Wonderland”).

The MLJ Companion

The shocking death of the Comet and subsequent creation of MLJ’s avenging crime-fighter, the Hangman, took place on these two pages from Pep Comics #17 [July, 1941].

Moronia. Looking back now, it’s difficult to imagine a time when publishers were unwilling to risk offending Hitler and Nazi Germany. After defusing the bund, the Press Guardian went after graft and other forms of civic corruption. As mentioned earlier, Meskin was an excellent artist as well as an inventive and audacious one. His pages, like those of Cole, stand out in these early issues. Despite the impressive artwork, though, the feature was not a hit, and the Guardian hung up his crimson mask, green suit, and green chapeau after issue #11. Possibly the fact that he had a name better suited to a newspaper than to a crime-fighter had something to do with it. Pep filled the other berths in its early issues with detectives, military personnel, a prizefighter, and a Flash Gordon surrogate. “Fu Chang” was a Chinese private investigator based in San Francisco’s Chinatown. A handsome, dapper young fellow, he was aided in his investigations by a set of magic chessmen. “The chessmen possess all the magic powers of Aladdin’s lamp and are responsible for Fu Chang’s spectacular solutions of great international mysteries.” The other resident crime-solver was “Bentley of Scotland Yard.” His cases were almost as bizarre as those his Chinese counterpart handled. A quick glance at the titles of some of the inspector’s cases will give you a notion of what he had to cope with month after month: “The Hunchback Horror,” “The Tarantula Terror,” “The

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

Congo Curse,” “The Vampire Murders,” “‘The Man-Monster of London.” Joe Blair, who wrote the stories, had obviously fallen under the spell of Ellery Queen, and he halted each gruesome yarn on the penultimate page to issue a challenge to the reader: “Bentley knows who is responsible for the sinister doings. Do you know who he is?” The names of all the suspects followed and you had to check one. Pretty intellectual stuff for a 1940 comic book. “The Midshipman” was a sedate feature that dealt with Lee Sampson, a clean-cut lad who attended the U.S. Naval Academy and typified “the American ideal of patriotism and intelligence.” MLJ seems to have had a difficult time getting artists to stick with this one; they kept jumping ship. During his 16- issue career, the Midshipman was rendered by, among others, Edd Ashe, Bob Wood, Al Camy, and Mort Meskin. A somewhat peppier service strip was “Sergeant Boyle,” drawn by Charles Biro and written by the magazine’s editor, Abner Sundell. The premise was simple: “Sergeant Boyle, American college student, joined the British Army to find excitement… and he finds plenty!” This was a slam-bang action thing, peppered with wisecracks, and akin to the service comedy-adventure movies Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe had made in the ’20s and ’30s (What Price Glory? being the best known). It also resembled the “Corporal Collins” feature Biro was doing for Blue Ribbon Comics, except that the redheaded Collins was an American in the French Army.

of its second bananas and added some new ones. “The Fireball” and “Danny in Wonderland” arrived in #12 (Feb. 1941). Drawn by Harry Lucey, the blue-clad Fireball specialized in suppressing arsonists. “Ted Tyler, a city fireman, has gained the power to control fire as the result of an accident in a chemical factory. He assumes the identity of ‘The Fireball’—sworn enemy of all those who use fire for evil purposes.” Although “Danny in Wonderland” dealt with a boy who wished his way into a magic fantasyland, it wasn’t exactly in the cute Disney vein. As noted, the MLJ comics began to grow more violent and sexy at about this time, and Danny’s adventures in the land of wonders fit in with the new trend. So you got bloodshed and bosoms along with your wizards, witches, and dragons. The dependable Lin Streeter was the first artist on the feature, followed by Bob Montana and Red Holmdale.

The Devil’s most valued agent (and “fitting mate”) was Madam Satan, who appeared in Pep #15–21.

“The Rocket and The Queen of Diamonds” was a poor man’s Flash Gordon, complete with blazing ray-guns and roaring rocketships. The hero was a stalwart blond fellow whose working clothes consisted of crimson shorts and a sword belt. He arrived in the Diamond Empire, which was “the hidden wonder of the world,” and eventually teamed up with the beautiful, dark-haired lady who ruled the place. Lin Streeter drew the strip for its entire 12-issue run. For sports fans, Pep offered “Kayo Ward.” Kayo was in the Joe Palooka mold, a not overly bright guy who dropped his G’s and used “youse” in nearly every sentence. As the story unfolded from month to month, you saw him go from “obscure steel worker” to heavyweight champ. Bob Wood provided the artwork for a good part of Kayo’s ring career. At the end of its first year in business, Pep Comics cancelled several A particularly brutal MLJ super-hero was the Hangman, who, for a spell, became quite popular with his own title. Bob Dickering became the character to avenge the death of his brother, John, a.k.a. the Comet! The Hangman first appeared in Pep #17 [July ’41].

The most unsettling new addition came along in #16 ( June 1941). Her name was “Madam Satan,” and she worked for the Devil himself. She was a sultry lady, a dark-haired version of the heartless vamp who haunted the movies in the years between the two World Wars, and she was alarmingly adept at turning innocent fellows into thorough scoundrels. An early caption explained her origin thusly: “The Devil searched far and long for a ally to wreak havoc amongst mortals… Then the black, corrupt soul of a beautiful woman, a victim of her own fiendish plan on earth, left its bodily habitation to stand before the King of Purgatory… and his search was at an end… the Devil had found himself a fitting mate.” Using the sinister name Iola and donning a slinky satin evening gown, Madam Satan insinuated herself in various lives and set out to corrupt as many men as possible. A typical victim, Carl Jensen, was lured away from his true love and soon “completely in the toils of the creature of the netherworld, beginning a mad and expensive orgy of merrymaking.” All too soon, Carl was goaded into a life of crime. “Shower me with real gifts! Expensive ones,” Iola urged her bedazzled victim. “Steal if you must!” After beating up his own father and shooting his real love, Carl finally came to his senses. He saw Iola as she really was, her face a grinning, green skull. Undaunted, Iola tried next to convince the people of a quiet New England town that a new bride who suffered from catalepsy was actually a vampire. This sequence, which stretched over two issues, was rich with gruesome images: Iola turning into a vampire bat, Iola sucking the blood from a golden-haired tot, one of her dupes being impaled on the stake meant for the innocent bride. Add to these the many shots of Madam S in a low-cut scarlet gown and the cataleptic newlywed in her flimsy nightdress and you had a pretty heady mixture. Although Iola never quite succeeded in shipping an innocent soul to Hell, she did cause an awful lot of death and destruction in the six issues she was around. The strip was drawn, with obvious relish, by Harry Lucey. Another bloody strip began in #17. “The Hangman” was a grim fellow who became a costumed hero in order to carry on the family tradition. His name was Robert Dickering and the Comet (discussed previously) was his brother. Bob decided to take up the crime-fighter trade when the Comet was killed by gangsters’

The MLJ Companion

bullets. Nowadays, with comic book heroes dropping like flies, the death of one more doesn’t have much of an effect; but back in 1941 the demise of the Comet was a unique and shocking event. For his first job, the Hangman went after those responsible for his brother’s death. He haunted them with projected images of a gallows, engaged them in hand-to-hand combat, and finally saw that the ringleader was executed on the gallows by the state. In the final panel, the Hangman looked directly out at the reader and, striking an Uncle-Sam-wants-you pose, warned, “The Comet has died but his spirit lives on… in The Hangman! Beware, criminals, you cannot outrun your own conscience… nor escape the gallows!” Another unusual thing about this new feature was the choice of artist. George Storm was in his forties and had been a professional cartoonist since before World War I. His Bobby Thatcher was one of the first adventure strips in newspapers, and, from the late ’20s to the middle ’40s, it was one of the most popular in the country. Storm abandoned his kid adventurer in 1937 to go home to Oklahoma to give farming a try. By 1939, he was back in Manhattan and working in the burgeoning comic book field. Possessor of a loose, quirky style, Storm drew like nobody else and was at his best when handling strips with some humor in them. He created “The Whip” for DC’s Flash Comics and also drew “Bugs Bunny” for the early Looney Tunes. Although impressively versatile, Storm didn’t seem quite at home with “The Hangman.” The stranglings, impalings, and hangings weren’t what he was best suited to draw, and he left the feature after four issues. Harry Lucey, who’d warmed up his gruesome side on “Madam Satan,” took over. Later, Bob Fujitani illustrated the Hangman’s vengeful adventures. “Archie” slipped rather unobtrusively into the magazine in issue #22 (Dec. 1941). Yet another redhead, he had only six pages near the back of the book. Bob Montana was the creator of the feature. Teenagers were coming into their own at this period, both as a target for manufacturers and as a source of inspiration for entertainment. Henry Aldrich, the well-meaning but bumbling teen who was the prime inspiration for Archie, had first appeared in 1938 in Clifford Goldsmith’s Broadway play What A Life! Henry had jumped next to radio, then into movies. Jackie Cooper was the first screen Henry in 1939, and Jimmy Lydon, a less handsome and gawkier young fellow, took over in the early ’40s.

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

Of course, the entire MLJ line was transformed by the popularity of Archie Andrews, who first appeared in Pep Comics #22 [Dec. 1941], so much so the entire super-hero line was scuttled and the company changed its name to Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Montana was obviously influenced by Henry Aldrich and the various other wacky teenagers who were proliferating in the media. His Archie Andrews leads the same sort of problem-plagued life as Henry, Hollywood’s Andy Hardy (played by young Mickey Rooney), and the rest. Like the movies, the strip had pretty girls: one sexy blonde and one sexy brunette, who were the poles of Archie’s romantic aspirations. I first encountered Archie when he made his debut and I fell immediately under his spell. It seems likely that a good part of the strip’s audience over the years has been made up of kids who haven’t yet arrived at their teens. Montana, too, could work in both the adventure and comedy areas (in Pep he even took a crack at “Bentley of Scotland Yard”). But he was at his best as a “big foot” man, and his early “Archie” work has a charm that was lost forever when the “Archie” production line started going full speed. As Archie’s appeal grew, Pep began dropping the more sober-sided characters and replacing them with funny folks. Such strips as “Marco Loco,” “Li’l Chief Bugaboo,” “Suzie,” and “Katy Keene” nudged out poor Inspector Bentley, the Hangman, and finally, after issue #65 ( Jan. 1948), the Shield himself. It was almost nothing but laughs from that day onward.

murdered and robbed of all his wealth by gangsters, and to avoid a similar end for himself, John Sterling devoted every minute of his youth to dangerous experiments! In one final experiment, the result of which would be success or death!—he hurled himself into a tank of molten steel and fiery chemicals! The test realized his life ambition. He emerged ‘Steel Sterling,’ with all the attributes of this sturdiest of metals!! As a blind to both police and underworld, Steel Sterling adopts another personality. He poses as John Sterling, four-flushing private investigator and ‘twin brother’ of the famous Steel!” Included in the SS stock company were Dora Cummings, pretty dark-haired daughter of a world-famous scientist; Clancy, a fat redheaded patrolman (if you were fat and named Clancy, there wasn’t much else you could do in the 1940s comics except be a cop), and Alec Looney, a skinny foul-up who assisted John Sterling in his private eye business. The most frequently met villain in early issues was a costumed rogue known as the Black Knight. For some reason (perhaps because the MLJ colorist didn’t bother to read the copy) the Black Knight’s outfit was brown and yellow. Later exponents of evil included the Rattler, a fellow who dressed up in a snake suit and gave his victims a shot from his “double hypo of snake venom,” and Inferno, who could breathe out fire and was reformed into a super-hero after his encounter with Steel. (I guess he figured, if you can’t lick ’em, join ’em.)

Zip Comics

The MLJ folks brought out the fourth and last of their monthly titles just as 1940 was getting under way. Over at Action Comics, Superman himself was sometimes known as the Man of Steel (as well as the Man of Tomorrow), but that didn’t daunt the upstart Zip Comics any. In its first issue, cover-dated Feb. 1940, Zip introduced its very own Man of Steel. His name was Steel Sterling, and you could see him right there on the premier cover, red-costumed and over-muscled, ripping up enemy warplanes while bullets bounced off his manly chest. Inside the magazine you got not only Steel, but also seven other two-fisted heroes, ranging from costumed crime-fighters to turbaned magicians. “Steel Sterling” was drawn by Charles Biro and written by the magazine’s editor, Abner Sundell. Since Biro had been doing mostly cute comedy fillers until a few months earlier, he still wasn’t completely at home in the straight adventure field. His anatomy was shaky, as was his grasp of perspective. But he had a strong sense of action. His early pages, though often crudely drawn, have movement and life. Throughout his career, Biro’s ideas for grabbing attention and holding the reader would always be several steps ahead of his actual drawing ability. Our hero had an origin that was traumatic enough to have caused the average super-hero to call it quits right then and there. An early caption explains it ably: “To avenge the death of his father, who was

Biro dropped the feature in the spring of 1941 to concentrate on his new comic book ventures with publisher Lev Gleason. Carl Hubbell took over the series, and was followed by Irving Novick. Novick’s “Steel Sterling” was much better drawn, but he lacked some of the flamboyance of Biro’s lumpier version. He had help from penciler Pierce Rice. Zip offered two more costumed heroes, neither of whom had any super-powers. “The Scarlet Avenger” (not to be confused with “The Crimson Avenger,” doing business over in Detective Comics) wore a snappy bright-green suit and a scarlet cloak and mask. He was “the man who never smiles” and had “dedicated his life to the extermination of crime, and for the accomplishment of this purpose he has brought into play his super-scientific brain.” Most of his early troubles were caused by a sexy and extremely tall red-haired villainess named Texa. Novick drew this one. Edd Ashe illustrated the adventures of “Mr. Satan,” a chap who did his gang busting in a cape and skin-tight

Between 1940–44, Zip Comics headlined Steel Sterling, MLJ’s “Man of Steel,” who first appeared in #1 [Feb. ’40]. He was, as well can be imagined, a super-hero with impervious skin, the result of naked John Sterling’s plunge into a cauldron of molten steel, all the while chemically coated.

The MLJ Companion

Other Zip Comics residents included [clockwise from right] Abner Sundell and Mort Meskin’s one-man Terry and the Pirates take-off “Captain Valor”; Harry Shorten and Irv Novick’s crimson-draped super-hero, “The Scarlet Avenger”; Joe Blair and Ed Wexler’s Mandrake the Magicianinspired “Zambini, the Miracle Man”; Harvey Willard and Lin Streeter’s Archie prototype “Wilbur” (who predated the red-haired super-star’s debut by three months); Sundell and Edd Ashe’s yellow-caped “Mr. Satan,” and goliath jungle king, “Kalthar,” created by Shorten and Streeter.

costume topped with devil horns. Although you’d have expected a hero with this many affinities to the Prince of Darkness to wear a red suit, Mr. Satan’s uniform was lavender. There was one other masked man on the early Zip staff. See if you can guess his name. He was a cowboy hero who rode a white horse and wore a black domino mask and white Stetson. That’s right: “Nevada Jones.” Rounding out the line-up were a jungle man, a matched pair of daredevil aviators, a soldier of fortune, and a magician. “Kalthar” was a blond jungle lord, and he had the handy knack, brought off with the aid of witch doctor magic, of growing to the height of 15 feet. “War Eagles” featured a set of twins, “two American polo players who join the RAF.” “Captain Valor” was a red haired ex-Marine who did his adventuring in the trouble-filled Orient. Mort Meskin provided the excellent artwork. The last act of the bill was “Zambini, the Miracle Man”: “The master of magic has many miraculous powers, but the greatest is his ability to compel an evil force to return like a boomerang to the place where it started. Zambini’s services are free, but he will serve only on the side of justice!”

with these stirring words: “The Homicide Squad—a name that strikes terror into the lecherous hearts of the underworld.” MLJ introduced its first teenage character in Zip #18 (Sept. 1941). His name was “Wilbur,” and he got into the saddle shoe, bow tie, and high school letter-sweater business three months ahead of the better-known Archie. “Black Jack,” a red-costumed crime fighter with an ace of spades emblazoned on his chest, made his debut in #20 (Nov. 1941). Appropriately enough, his favorite opponent was a hooded rascal known as Poker Face. By this time, MLJ was in its bloody phase (which coincided, oddly enough, with its teenage and humor phase), and the “Black Jack” adventures were full of bloodshed and sharp weapons.

An even bloodier hero showed in #27 ( July 1942) in the person of “The Web.” A red-haired fellow, he wore a green-and-yellow costume which included a cape resembling a giant spider web. In everyday life, he was a bespectacled professor of criminology named John Raymond. Perhaps his academic background accounts for the Mr. Satan and Kalthar got their pink slips after the ninth issue. somewhat flowery way he often addressed the vicious Nazis and (I’d hate to have been the one to fire a guy who was 15 feet tall!) In Japanese he frequently tangled with: “You’ve spun your own doom #10 ( Jan. 1941), a somewhat violent kid fantasy by R.L. Golden was already… You’ve woven a trap of hate and crime you can’t escape!” added. “Dicky in the Magic Forest” took place “in the realm of fancy or, “And so you see how a web of evil which reached its slimy skein at no particular place, at no particular time.” Also coming aboard clear across the world finally ended in death and destruction for the that month was “Red Reagan of the Homicide Squad,” which began very men who had spun it. It will always be that way… criminals will

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

Two latter Zip Comics entries in the Golden Age super-hero sweepstakes were card-carrying Black Jack (alter ego of officer Jack Jones, a cop with an affinity for card games and crime-fighting), who would be featured from his intro in Zip #20 [Nov. ’41] until #35 [Mar. ’43] and the Web, who lasted for a dozen issues, starting with #27 [July ’42]. Behind his mask, the Web was actually academic criminologist John Raymond who sought to capture ne’er-do-wells in the “web of crime they themselves spin!”

forever meet doom enmeshed in the web of crime they themselves spin!” The professor spun his crime-fighting web in various parts of the war-torn world, including the United States and Europe. He was especially fond of torture chambers, locales where you encountered “the shrill agonizing shrieks of humans in terrible suffering and the low piteous moans of those praying for death.” The Web failed to ensnare sufficient readers into his parlor, and he was retired after #38 ( July 1943). Mort Leav was the original artist, with Bob Montana depicting the Web on several covers. By the time the Web had been swept out of Zip, it was a somewhat different magazine than it had been earlier. Humor 94

had crowded out many of the serious features, and you found stuff like “The Slaphappy Applejacks,” a hillbilly feature by Harry Sahle; “Ginger,” a strip about a red-headed teenage girl by Harry Sahle; and “Señor Banana,” a Latino with a fat sidekick named Stencho Odora, drawn by, of all people, Harry Sahle. Zip #39 saw the arrival of Red Rube. This starred a red-haired mock super-hero and was a god-awful, heavy-handed spoof of “Captain Marvel.” Instead of “Shazam,” youthful newsboy Reuben Reuben shouted, “Hey, Rube!” Ed Robbins started this one, Bill Vigoda finished it off nine issues later. The entire magazine shut down at the same time, with its 47th issue in the summer of 1944. Zip headliner Steel Sterling’s status would diminish with the introduction of the humorous super-hero character Red Rube with Zip Comics #39. At left is detail from the cover of Zip #40 [Oct. ’43].

The MLJ Companion

MLJ’s Quarterlies—and the end of the line

Dusty, and the Wiz’s, Roy. Hangman was tossed out of his own magazine after the eighth issue (Fall 1943), and it became Black Hood. After starting up four monthlies, MLJ tried a few quarterlies. The When that one closed up shop in the middle of 1946, MLJ was just first of these was Shield-Wizard Comics, which appeared in the summer of 1940. What you got was a team-up of the star of Pep with about out of the hero business. the star of Top-Notch, featuring separate adventures of each, usually MLJ, eventually changing its name to Archie Comics, continues three of “The Shield,” two of “The Wizard.” In issues #3 and 4, Mort to this day. Noted mostly for purveying the antics of funny teenMeskin did an impressive, though a mite rushed, job drawing the agers, it has made occasional attempts to revive some of the heroes mustached Wizard and his companion, Roy, the Super-Boy. we’ve been talking about in our modest history: the Shield, Steel Sterling, the Fox, the Comet, etc. The following spring Jackpot Comics hit the stands, offering a hero from each of the four monthlies in separate adventures. The Thus far, all attempts have met with less than success, and one basic quartet consisted of “Steel Sterling,” “The Black Hood,” “Mr. reason may be that these brash, flamboyant, and sometimes dippy Justice,” and “Sergeant Boyle.” “Archie” was added in #4, and other super-heroes and masked avengers were much better suited humor strips arrive later, with even “Cubby the Bear” doing a turn. to the hardboiled yet comparatively innocent decade Jackpot got through nine issues, before expiring in the spring of of the ’40s. 1943. The Hangman, one of the more violent MLJ vigilantes, got his own magazine late in 1941. There were three of his gruesome cases to be found in each issue: “Cruise of the Skeletons,” “The Voice of Doom,” “Gallows and the Ghoul,” etc. He shared his magazine with “The Boy Buddies,” a dull duo made up of the Shield’s sidekick,

Ron Goulart is an acclaimed writer of fiction in the fields of mystery and science-fiction, as well as having scripted comic books ( for Marvel) and comic strips (Star Hawks with Gil Kane). He has also written numerous volumes on the history of comic books and pulp magazines.

Three super-hero quarterlies from the MLJ line were Hangman Comics (originally named Special Comics for the first issue [Winter ’42], it would change to Black Hood Comics by #9 [Winter ’43], only to become Laugh Comics with #20 [Fall ’46]); Jackpot Comics (which would become a funny animal title, Jolly Jingles, with #10 [Summer ’43]); and Shield-Wizard Comics (which would last until Spring ’44, with #13).

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

1 Irv Novick

An Interview with Creator Chat

Conducted by John Coates [Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted in the 1990s and it originally saw print in Comic Book Marketplace #77 [April 2000]. From 1939 to 1946, Irv Novick (April 11, 1916 – October 15, 2004) worked for MLJ Comics. He was the primary artist for the super-hero comics, including the Shield, Bob Phantom, the Hangman, and Steel Sterling. Irv continued to work in comics through the 1990s, mostly for DC Comics. Primarily focusing on the war comics, in the super-hero line he worked on Superman, Batman, The Flash, Teen Titans and Wonder Woman. Our thanks to Brian K. Morris for a retyping assist.]

“[MLJ] Was Paying More Money Than Chesler Was” John Coates: How did you become interested in comic books? Irv Novick: Well, I graduated from the [National Academy of Design] in 1938 and had seen an ad in the New York Times newspaper for artists to draw comic books. Being that the industry was still in its infancy, I had never heard of a comic book, never seen one, didn’t know what it was other than it meant work. I showed them my showcard art and they hired me right away. This was with Harry Chesler’s outfit. At first, I worked in his shop but eventually moved to working freelance from my home. Working in the office was pleasant, but I preferred working at my own pace, on my own time. I’ve always been a night person. I like to work at night when everyone else has gone to bed. I never went to bed before two o’clock. JC: How long did you work for Harry Chesler? Novick: A few years, I believe. At the time, MLJ was buying most of the work being produced from Chesler’s studio. MLJ was a publishing house founded by Morris Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John Goldwater. Anyway, after a while, Louis came to me and asked if I could work directly for them. They wanted me to work on a character called The Shield. They were paying more money than Chesler, so I did. I think this was around 1940.

Above is a portrait of Irving Novick as young MLJ artist. Below left is the artist in 2002 with his wife Sylvia. Novick would pass away two years later. On the opposite page is Novick’s Shield pin-up from the back cover of Top-Notch Comics #19 [Sept. 1941].

character. Did they have a ready-made character when you arrived? Novick: Well, they had an idea for a hero that was based on the patriot theme. From their initial idea, I designed the costume and created his character of being a G-man. Once I had defined and created the character, Harry Shorten was brought in to write and edit the stories. I believe The Shield was the first patriotic hero. He appeared in Pep Comics. JC: You’re correct; he was the first patriotic hero. Were you at all excited or surprised when it became a hit? Novick: I tell you, John, to me it was just a character and a job and that was it. I tried to do it to the best of my abilities. That’s it! JC: What was the creative process at MLJ? Novick: Well, MLJ provided me with a script, and I penciled and inked it. If I wanted to change things in the story, they were always open to it.

JC: Let’s talk about The Shield. You JC: While at MLJ, there were other artists of note. Let me toss out a said MLJ wanted you to work on the few names: Charles Biro?

The MLJ Companion

Irv Novick Interview

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

Over the course of Irv Novick’s stay at MLJ as the predominant artist on “The Shield” and (after the departure of Charles Biro) “Steel Sterling,” the emphasis on the line’s covers would shift to torture scenes and bondage (of invariably scantily-clad young ladies). Here are two such Novick examples, Pep Comics #7 [Aug. ’40] and Zip Comics #18 [Sept. ’41].

Novick: Yes, Charlie Biro was a pretty big guy, overweight, a real heavy-set type. At the time, the MLJ office was located on the eighth floor of the New York Telegraph Building, on Hudson Street. I remember Charlie would always challenge me to all kinds of things when I came into the office. I never knew why. [laughs] For instance, he would bet me that if I took the elevator up and he raced the stairs, he could beat me. Well, I thought it was worth it to see him drop dead when we reached the top so I accepted! He almost did drop dead. [laughs] But you know, he did beat me! JC: Mort Meskin? Novick: Mort was a very fine person. An excellent artist, too. During my time at MLJ, Mort and I were very close. We had planned to get a studio together down in the village, but we never found the right place. We kept in touch for quite a while, but then he up and disappeared on me. It was quite some time before I saw him again. I believe it was the 1960s when we met again while at an advertising agency. You just lose track. Unfortunately, he died in 1995. JC: Bob Wood? Novick: Yes, Bob was an okay guy, but I think he was sent away to prison for a while for shooting someone. I can’t remember for what exactly, but I do know he was sent to prison for awhile. 98

JC: I had read he shot his wife. How about Jack Binder? Novick: Jack was a nice guy, but some people didn’t like him. I don’t know why, because I liked him. Since Jack was paying for the work, he demanded quality. I had no problem with that. JC: How long did you work with MLJ? Novick: I continued to work with MLJ throughout the war. After being drafted in 1943, I was stationed in Mississippi for a year and half. From there, I was stationed in Fort Knox, Kentucky, for two more years, until 1946. I never saw combat because when the Army sent me to Officer Candidate School, they re-examined me and found I had a heart murmur. The examining doctors said, “How did you even get in the Army in the first place?” I said, “They needed warm bodies and they said I qualified!” [laughs] I told them I had a heart murmur, but the doctor at the entrance exam ignored it. I got it as a child when I had Rheumatic fever. Anyway, during this time, MLJ would send me work at the Army base. Instead of playing cards like all the other guys did, I sat on my bunk and drew comic books. Sometimes the guys would stop playing cards for a minute or so, come by and look over my shoulder, ask questions, and then go back to playing cards. If any of the guys read my books, I never knew. At the end of each month, I would get this check from MLJ. Somebody from HQ always opened my mail because you could see that it contained a check. Army pay being what it was, everybody on base was trying to borrow money from The MLJ Companion

me. I was very popular, if you know what I mean. Some did borrow money, though I never got paid back. That was the end of that! [laughs] JC: How did you come to work at DC Comics? Novick: After being discharged from the Army in 1946, I met Bob Kanigher. At the time, he was a writer and editor for DC Comics. I met him at Irwin Hasen’s apartment. I had known Irwin since our days as artists at Chesler and MLJ. Anyway, years earlier, when working for MLJ, Bob had called me on the phone, introduced himself, and told me he was hired to do a story for MLJ’s “Steel Sterling,” one of our books. At this point, I had never met him. But he dictated the story to me over the phone and I drew it. He was so concise, so complete in his descriptions, that I didn’t have to write it down. I simply drew it from memory. Bob remembered this when we met again in Irwin’s apartment and offered me a freelance job. I think my first work for Bob was on one of the love or war comics. Bob was a heck of a writer. He had a keen sense of telling a story. Very imaginative. We worked on a number of characters: “Johnny Cloud,” “Sgt. Rock,” “Captain Storm,” “Haunted Tank,” and a few others, and we are still firm friends. JC: [What do you remember about] Paul Reinman? Among artist Irv Novick’s freelance work after his MLJ stint was assignments for the comics-for-advertising agency Johnstone and Cushing, producing ads and (sometimes religious-themed) comics pages for Boys’ Life. He also worked on the syndicated newspaper strip Cynthia. By the 1970s, the artist had a long run on The Flash, as well as other titles for DC Comics. Novick retired from the comics industry in the late 1980s.

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

Long after his freshman days at MLJ, Irv Novick established a fruitful, extended tenure at DC Comics, where he worked on Robert Kanigher’s war titles and, by the later ’60s and ’70s, he advanced to super-hero assignments, including Batman.

Novick: Paul was a pretty bright guy, an intellectual. We used to have long, deep discussions about art, politics, and the like. JC: Do you keep up with the comic book market today? Novick: No, but I do keep in touch with Bob Kanigher. Outside of comics, he’s written books, poetry, and plays. He is very talented. A Renaissance man! Very prolific… Anyway, though I enjoyed the work, I would never really look at the comics themselves. Back in the 1940s, I remember every month MLJ would send me stacks of comic books, and I would just set them aside or store them in the attic. When we moved up to Westchester in 1960, into the house,

my wife and I had built— JC: Wait, don’t say it—you threw them away? Novick: Yes, I threw them out: Steel Sterling, Zip Comics, Pep Comics, all of that stuff. JC: Ouch! That hurts! [laughs] Novick: You’re telling me? [laughs] I didn’t know what the things were worth; they were just in the way. Who knew? I was just thinking of the house I was building. It took five years between 1955 and 1960. I always enjoyed doing carpentry, plumbing, electrical wiring, and all kinds of construction work. I was fortunate to have these as hobbies, considering I was building my house! My favorite hobby now is walking. I’m a pretty fast walker, and that keeps me thinking young. Doesn’t keep me young, though!

The Roy Lichtenstein Pop Art Larceny

However ethical, modern painter Roy Lichtenstein appropriated comic book panels by other artists, including Russ Heath, John Romita, Mike Sekowsky, Joe Kubert, and numerous others, translating the cartoonists’ work onto canvas. His most renowned pop art work is “Whaam!” [1963], which was derived from Irv Novick’s panel in the story “The Star Jockey,” All-American Men of War #89 [Jan.–Feb. ’62]. The painting is a part of the Tate Gallery’s permanent collection. A lesser Lichtenstein painting sold at auction in 2011 for $43 million. 100

The MLJ Companion

The MLJ super-hero gets his own radio show After three years in the comic books, The Black Hood debuted on network radio on July 7, 1943 on the Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS). It was a sustaining (nonsponsored) series and aired its 15 minute episodes five times weekly until going off the air in January 1944, having failed to pick up an advertiser.

The Black Hood (1943) 15-minute Mutual Network Radio Program Author Unknown. Based on the MLJ Comics and Magazine Character.

Two then unknown, but competent, radio performers played the leads: Scott Douglas portrayed The Black Hood/Kip Burland, while Marjorie Cramer was the voice of his girlfriend, Barbara Sutton, usually called “Babs.” A supporting character in this Zip Comics #43 [Jan. ’44] featured this ad promoting the Black Hood radio show. radio series, Sergeant McGinty of the local police, was a third SFX: GONG Hit wheel to the crime solving accomplishments of Kip and Babs. Radio standards for content were more stringent than the pulps and the comic books, so radio’s Black Hood had much less violence in his stories, while bondage and torture were eliminated altogether. The theme music for this radio program was a curious choice: the “water bucket” segment from “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” composed by Paul Dukas in 1897, but certainly recognizable to juvenile listeners as Mickey Mouse’s showcase scene in Disney’s 1940 classic Fantasia. While approximately 120 episodes of The Black Hood were aired on Mutual, only one audio copy has survived, the initial episode which was recorded as the audition disk. Here is a transcript of that episode:

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

CAST OF CHARACTERS: Kip Burland/ The Black Hood Barbara Sutton Sergeant McGinty Gunman Womba Old Man

The Black Hood… on the Air!

The Black Hood... on the Air!

ANNCR: The Black Hood! SFX: GONG Hit. ANNCR: Criminals beware… The Black Hood is everywhere! SFX: Weird TONE UP and UNDER HOOD: (filter) I, the Black Hood do solemnly swear that neither threat, nor bribe, nor bullet, nor death itself—will keep me from fulfilling my vow: To erase crime from the face of the earth! SFX: Tone UP AND OUT SFX : GONG HIT MUSIC: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, by Paul Dukas. UP AND FADE OUT UNDER ANNCR.

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ANNCR: The Black Hood, who is really patrolman Kip Burland, a fact known only to newspaper woman Barbara Sutton, has just been talking to Barbara on the phone. They were discussing the old Miracle Man and his strange housekeeper Womba. Sergeant McGinty, Patrolman Burland’s superior had thought their visit to the Voodoo doctor merely routine. But Kip Burland and Barbara Sutton were fascinated by the black magic of the Old Miracle Man. In fact, the old man had given Barbara an odd emerald ring in a twined serpent setting. Womba, the old housekeeper had objected to the gift. We find the telephone conversation between Burland and Barbara Sutton has been interrupted by a stranger at Barbara’s door—Burland is holding the line.

BARBARA: This ring? Well… it’s not worth very much… GUNMAN: That’s all right, I’ll take it anyhow. BARBARA: (determined) It’s on my finger, and that’s where it’s going to stay! GUNMAN: I wouldn’t want to have to shoot it off. BARBARA: Aren’t you satisfied? You’ve got everything of value in the place. I’m going to keep this ring! GUNMAN: Now look here— I’ve tried to be nice with ya! It looks like I’m going to have to take it by force! BARBARA: Why you…Oh— Stop!

BARBARA: (Screams) What are you doing here with a gun? You can’t come in!

SFX: Sound of scuffle, with sudden pounding on door. HOOD: That’ll be enough in there —open this door!

GUNMAN: Oh, I can’t — eh? Well, I’m coming in, and no one’s going to stop me, either! Not till I get what I came for.

GUNMAN: Somebody to help ya, eh? Well, I’ll get that ring if I have to kill the both of ya!

KIP: (filter) Barbara, are you alright?

SFX: DOOR KICKED OPEN, followed by SHOT. Hard FOOTSTEPS, GLASS BREAKS, followed by another SHOT and METAL FOOTSTEPS on fire escape.

GUNMAN: There’s no one around. I checked and made sure the doorman was out…

BARBARA: There he goes Kip, out the window, and down the fire escape!

KIP: (filter) Barbara! GUNMAN: I came in and walked up the stairs…

HOOD: He didn’t hit you KIP: Well, I’ve heard For the Winter 1943 issue, Hangman Comics was renamed for the increasingly popular with one of those stray MLJ character the Black Hood [#9]. Black Hood Comics would last for eleven issues shots, Babs—did he? enough of that! I’d better get over to Barbara’s right until it would change to Laugh Comics by #20 [Fall ’46], starring Archie Andrews. BARBARA: No, I’m all away… (deeper) It’s time alright… well, except for my finger. He almost twisted it for THE BLACK HOOD to go to work! off trying to get this ring! SFX: GONG Wait until the last reverberation has faded HOOD: You poor kid! Well, he certainly made a fast exit. out, then: BARBARA: I’ve told you time and time again—that’s all the money I have in the apartment. You’ve got all the silver and linen—what more do you want? GUNMAN: Now I’ll have that emerald ring on your finger.

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BARBARA: I’ll say he did! HOOD: Look, he left his loot behind. Did you get a good look at him? BARBARA: Yes, and I’m glad I asked you to hold the

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line. I’d better hang up the phone now.

when the door buzzer rang.

SFX: PHONE REPLACED.

MCGINTY: Ah, Kip’s a good boy. I guess you know that.

BARBARA: He had a mask over his face, and he wore a dark blue suit. And he had a cap on, too.

SFX: DOOR SHUT

HOOD: Had is right. Here’s his hat. BARBARA: What an experience. I’m glad he left behind all my money, silver and linen, anyway. HOOD: Babs, I have a hunch that he never really wanted all that stuff to begin with. BARBARA: What makes you say that? HOOD: Because here’s the roll of film, too. It’s all money, isn’t it? Now any good, self-respecting robber puts money in his pocket, no matter how quick a getaway he has to make. He’d certainly take something with him. This visitor of yours was after something else, then. (pause) Here, let me take a look at that ring. BARBARA: Here it is. That’s what I get for accepting presents from strangers. If the old Miracle Man hadn’t given me this it all might not have happened. HOOD: Yes. You’ve got something there, Barbara. This man was after the ring. Mind if I take it with me? I’ll return it later. BARBARA: You’re certainly welcome to it. If it means I’m going to have prowlers breaking into the apartment, I’d just as well return it to the Miracle Man. HOOD: Oh, no—that’s one thing we’re not going to do! BARBARA: Well, why not? HOOD: Someone seems to be too anxious to get it back! SFX: GONG MCGINTY: Well, you asked for it, Miss Sutton. There’s no one dragged you into the newspaper business, did they? BARBARA: (laughs) You sound just like my father! I’m not complaining, Sergeant—but it is disconcerting to have someone break into your apartment and practically scare the wits out of you. MCGINTY: Oh, yeah? You don’t scare too easy. So he didn’t take anything, did he? BARBARA: Oh, luckily the… I mean, luckily Kip came just in time—you see I was talking to him on the phone

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

KIP: I hope she knows I’m a good boy! Good afternoon, Sergeant. MCGINTY: Hello, Kip! BARBARA: Hello, Kip! KIP: Hi, Babs! MCGINTY: Say, it’s too bad you didn’t get that sneak thief this afternoon. KIP: Oh, I wouldn’t call him that, Sergeant. MCGINTY: Why not? Now listen, I’ve had twenty-five years of dealing with men just like that. What I’d have done is to let him get away with something—then the rest is easy. You just check up on all the fences in town, trail your man that way, and before you know it, your crook is in jail. KIP: Well Sergeant, I have an idea that this man was after something else when he broke into Barbara’s apartment, and I’ll tell you why. Now listen… SFX: GONG WOMBA: Tonight then, we make magic again? OLD MAN: Yes! Tonight at midnight, we have a voodoo to perform! This time it is to be a young man. WOMBA: Last night, old man die from voodoo. Will be buried tomorrow. OLD MAN: He deserved to die. He was cruel—he beat his wife and children! She came to me in tears, and begged for help. WOMBA: (sing-song) Womba knows… Womba see. OLD MAN: Tonight we work our black magic on a younger man, he is a thief, the greatest of thieves! He has stolen from his father. WOMBA: Voodoo will be hard. Young man heretic—and Womba’s magic ring gone. OLD MAN: Womba, the voodoo will work, it always does. And forget about the old emerald ring! SFX: GONG

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MCGINTY: Dagnabit, Kip—maybe there is something to what you say. I’ll tell you what: tonight at midnight I’ll go down there me self to this “Miracle Man’s” place. KIP: You want me to go with you? MCGINTY: No, not tonight. They know you, but they’ve never met me. You know the old saying; a new broom sweeps clean! BARBARA: Well, what are you going to do, Sergeant— arrest them?

KIP: So am I. Here, let’s pull in here for a minute, under these trees. I’ve got something to tell you. SFX: CAR BRAKES, SLOWS DOWN, STOPS. KIP: Right about here should be all right, I think. Nice and romantic, huh? BARBARA: Oh, don’t tell me that the great Burland is suddenly going romantic! KIP: (laughs) No Babs, it’s strictly business. Now last night, at a little past midnight. The Miracle Man and Womba claimed that their magic or voodoo killed a man.

MCGINTY: No! I haven’t got any evidence to arrest them on. For that matter, what charge do we have against them? But if as Kip here says, that old ring came BARBARA: Oh, Kip are we going to go through all that from the Miracle Man’s shop, and this gunman seems to again? be specially interested in it—then maybe—maybe… KIP: Well, it’s been bothering me. And now that this ring has popped up, and this little souvenirs around… BARBARA: You mean… maybe the old woman Womba knows something about it? BARBARA: Why, that’s the cap the gunman left in my apartment this afternoon, isn’t it? I’d forgotten all about MCGINTY: Now that could be, Miss Sutton! All right, I’m going down there tonight at about eleven-thirty. And it. in plain clothes, too… KIP: I didn’t. McGinty and I checked it over and there’s no way of finding out who it belongs to. Well get to the SFX: GONG cap in just a minute. Now last night, they claimed they bumped off a man… SFX: CAR MOTOR UP AND FADE UNDER BARBARA: I feel important to be taken to my office in a police car. KIP: Quite a thrill, huh? BARBARA: If you want to pick me up later Kip, I have only about an hour’s work to do. A little story about the triplets born on their mother’s birthday up at the Northville Hospital this morning. KIP: Oh, so they’ve got you on that vital statistics stuff now. BARBARA: Well if you remember yesterday at the police station, you were asking about the list of people born, married, dead. Well, that gave me the idea. I suggested it to Mr. Worthington, and there you are— another by-line feature!

BARBARA: Mm-hmm—we’ve been all through that. KIP: Yet there’s been no report of a violent death. And according to the vital statistics list the only death that occurred around midnight was marked acute indigestion. BARBARA: Well, so what? KIP: Well, I’ve got the name of the man who died. He’s due to be buried tomorrow afternoon. Right after dinner this evening, I’m going around to see his widow. Hey young lady, maybe you’d like to join me. BARBARA: No thanks Kip, I’ve got a story to write—be glad to meet you after you go. KIP: (SNIFFS)

KIP: Babs, you may have a really startling story to write soon—on almost the same subject.

BARBARA: Hey, just what are you sniffing at that cap for?

BARBARA: I don’t follow you.

KIP: Just wondering about something. Here, take a sniff of this, Barbara.

KIP: It all depends on tomorrow morning’s vital statistics list. BARBARA: I wish you’d stop talking in riddles. Let me in on it—I’m dying of curiosity. 104

BARBARA: This all seems rather silly, going around sniffing at old hats.

The MLJ Companion

Stanley Taffet Takes the Top-Notch Prize! In a recent issue of Alter Ego [#139, May ’16], comics history sleuth Shaun Clancy tracked down 1943 MLJ contest winner Stanley Taffet, then of New York City’s Lower East Side, whose prize-winning letter about his favorite character—Top-Notch Laugh Comics’ Gloomy Gus, the Homeless Ghost—was selected when Taffet was a mere 11-yearold. In an interview, Taffet revealed that his prize was a portrait of the youngster drawn by “Red” Holmdale (at right) that was featured in Top-Notch #36 [May 1943]. Today, at 81, Taffet admitted that as a contest winner he received fan mail from across the globe (mostly girls, he recalls, who perhaps thought the pre-teen was a mite older than his portrait suggested), and also that the bestowed MLJ accolade did not sit well with his fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Kennedy, who was horrifed to learn that the lad’s letter appeared in what she called “garbage.” Indeed, young Taffet did receive from MLJ the original art by Holmdale, but he confessed to Clancey that he may have subsequently used the drawing as a dartboard! And despite Mrs. Kennedy holding him back a grade, Taffet would graduate college and is today retired in Florida, after a long and successful career. KIP: Go ahead, Babs—go ahead —sniff it! Do you smell something familiar? BARBARA: (SNIFFS) Yes… It isn’t exactly perfume… but I know I’ve smelt that scent before. KIP: Think hard, Barbara! Could it be an incense of some kind?

BARBARA: You’ve been twisting that ring around in your hand as if you wanted to make a wish or something. KIP: (laughs) That’s an idea! Hey—suppose you put it on, rub it, and make a wish. BARBARA: All right, but it doesn’t make sense.

BARBARA: Kip! You don’t mean that you…

KIP: Go on, put it on.

KIP: Yes, I do! That’s the very same heavy incense we noticed at the Miracle Man’s.

BARBARA: (laughingly) What’ll I say?

BARBARA: I don’t get —- oh, no—that’s impossible! Why the Miracle Man has a beard down to here, and he’s old—he must be at least ninety! That thug that broke into my apartment and wore that cap was young—why, he couldn’t have been more than thirty-five. KIP: Yes, you’re right. But there is such a thing as a disguise, you know.

KIP: Just put it on, rub it, and say … Abracadabra! BARBARA: Abracadabra! KIP: You rubbing it? BARBARA: Mmm-hmm. KIP: Now, Alakazam!

BARBARA: Well then, if it was the old man in disguise, then why would he want to get back a ring that he just willingly presented to me as a gift?

BARBARA: (laughs) Alakazam!

KIP: I’ve thought of that. But there is something else in that place—and someone else, who might want this ring.

BARBARA: I’m wishing. Goop-dip-rap-rap.

BARBARA: You mean Womba? KIP: She might want it for some reason or other. MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

KIP: Make your wish, now. Goop-dip-rap-rap!

KIP: Ha-zam! (laughs) BARBARA: (laughs, then cuts off) Kip, look! The ring’s opened!

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KIP: It what? BARBARA: Rubbing it somehow caused it to open — look! KIP: Be careful, Babs! Don’t touch it—just hold your hand steady. There might be a poison spring in that thing! BARBARA: The stone just swung to the side on a sort of hinge—look! KIP: Can you beat that? There’s some kind of powder in there! Here let me take that ring—wait, close it first.

WOMBA: Miracle Man no like people no have no appointment. MCGINTY: Is that so? Well get out of the way, old woman—I’m going down there right now! WOMBA: Oh? You like the African pottery? MCGINTY: No, I ain’t interested in no old pots and pans, neither. Put it away. (impatient) Out of my way, you old mummy! WOMBA: Oh, too bad you no like pottery! SFX: POTTERY SMASH MCGINTY: (groans)

BARBARA: Oh, right.

SFX: GONG —TOM-TOMS OUT

KIP: That’s it. Careful, don’t want to lose that powder.

MUSIC: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice UP AND UNDER

BARBARA: What are you going to do with it?

ANNCR: And so Womba insisted that Sergeant McGinty pay some attention to her African pottery—crashing the heavy vase on his head. Down goes the good Sergeant! Womba has BARBARA: Yes? made good her claim that no one goes into the KIP: (as the Hood) private chamber of the Tonight, a certain Miracle Man without Miss Barbara Sutton an appointment. Now, will accompany the what will she do with the Black Hood on a secret unconscious McGinty? mission at midnight! And what about the Black Hood? Has he been able to SFX: GONG discover anything more about the emerald ring MUSIC: TOM-TOMS UP and its strange powder? AND UNDER If Womba intends to harm A Black Hood oddity is the one-shot, unnumbered Black Hood published in Canada by F.E. McGinty, can the Black MCGINTY: Come on Howard Publications, likely in 1944. The 52-page comic book featured reprints from Pep Hood and Barbara arrive in now, woman. I didn’t Comics #46–49, including pages that were curiously redrawn—actually traced—from the come down here to play original American appearances. For more on the Canadian reprints, see article on page 108. time to save him? Be sure to listen tomorrow for more ping-pong. What’s going thrilling adventures of THE BLACK HOOD! (pause) The on downstairs? Black Hood is a copyright feature of the MLJ Magazine Group, and is broadcast over most of these stations WOMBA: Private place of Miracle Man. No one go in! Monday through Friday at 5:15 p.m. MCGINTY: Sez you! I get in everywhere—without MUSIC: UP AND OUT showing a ticket, too. KIP: First, I’m going to have that powder analyzed. Next, I’m on my way to visit a recent widow—and last…

ANNCR: This is MUTUAL.

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The Black Hood, Pulp Fiction Hero! Though many comics would adapt pulp magazine heroes such as the Shadow and Doc Savage to the fourcolor realm, few characters would be translated in the other direction. But one mystery man who did make the jump was MLJ’s Black Hood, who headlined three issues of his own magazine between 1941–42, which featured prose “novels” centered on the Top-Notch character. Interestingly, only the first issue was called Black Hood Detective, with the remaining titled Hooded Detective. To find out why, we asked pulp historian Will Murray. “The reason Columbia was forced to change the title goes to the little-know legal battles pulp magazine publishers often fought behind the scenes and out of sight of magazine readers,” Murray shared. “No sooner had Albing’s Red Mask Detective hit the stands in 1941 than its title was changed to Red Hood Detective. (This despite featuring Stanley Richard’s “Man in the Red Mask” series.) “The explanation is simple. Popular Publications— which recently purchased Black Mask [a long-running and popular mystery pulp]—threatened legal action, calling it an infringement on their trademark. So Albing hastily capitulated. Two months later, Columbia released the first issue of Black Hood Detective, starring their comic book and radio hero, the Black Hood. Popular Publications sought an injunction against use of that title, again citing infringement against their Black Mask. Columbia lost on appeal, and Black Hood Detective swiftly became Hooded Detective. Both titles sank without a trace shortly after. Otherwise the owners of Red Hood and Hooded Detective would probably have gone to war!”

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A Brief History of Canada’s

Golden Age Archie Comics by Rik Offenberger [Editor’s note: Thanks to Stephen Lipson, Tom Burton, Jonathan Gilbert, Curtis Leach, Richard Boucher, Bradley Cobb, and Shawn Clay for helping with research, information, and cover scans.] Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. On Sept. 3, 1939, after German forces penetrated deeper into Poland, Britain, France, Australia, and New Zealand declared war on Germany. This marked the beginning of World War II. Canada was an independent country at this point, but many still felt a strong kinship with the British Empire, and thousands of Canadians immediately joined the armed forces to fight on behalf of the motherland. On Sept. 10, 1939, Canada declared war on Germany. With the country quickly shifting into wartime mode, the federal government created new agencies to oversee such war efforts as munitions manufacturing, propaganda control, and the rationing of natural resources. By mid-September of that year, the Foreign Exchange Control Board was established to oversee the rationing of foreign currency and take charge of monitoring Canada’s international trade. Throughout 1940, its members grew concerned by Canada’s growing trade deficit with the United States. Still a neutral country at this point, the United States would not enter the war until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941.

In Dec. 1940, as Canada’s trade deficit with the United States grew and British gold shipments were curtailed, government intervention in the economy broadened with the introduction of the War Exchange Conservation Act. While sterling bloc countries traded heavily with England and kept their currency at parity with the English pound, this act was aimed at countries outside the sterling bloc and was primarily designed to conserve United States dollars by restricting the importation of non-essential goods. “Non-essential” goods meant practically anything that couldn’t be converted into weapons and ammunition, so among the items banned were comic books. Publishers of “Canadian Whites” (Canadian comic books which were mostly black-&-white) began importing printing plates from the U.S. and printing the American comics in Canada for the Canadian market. These comics weren’t published in any particular order, nor were they often exactly the same as the U.S. editions. One of the new Canadian pulp magazine publishers, Science Fiction, made this claim: By the purchase of this periodical, you are giving Canadians employment, Canadians who are paying taxes, buying War Savings Certificates and

Due to reasons discussed in the article, Canada was limited in regards to American imports and thus had to produce some of their own items, including comic books for a spell.

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However, all of the stories in the Canadian Pulp Science Fiction were previously printed in the United States! Included were stories from Louis Silberkleit, Martin Goodman, and Maurice Coyne’s Columbia Publications Future Fiction. Canadian publishers would also buy scripts from American publishers, including MLJ Magazines, and then have a Canadian artist re-do the artwork. Anglo-American Publishing had such an agreement with Fawcett. This led to some interesting Canadian versions, including Commando Yank, a patriotic American hero who fought his Canadian adventures with a British Union Jack (Canada’s official flag at the time) on his chest. Citren News Company of Canada did the same with MLJ’s the Shield, when they re-drew copies of Pep Comics for the Canadian audience. The Canadian versions of Pep were sold under the title Super Comics. Citren had apparently purchased these stories secondhand from Pershing Square Publishing’s subsidiary, Green Publishing. In 1944, both F. E. Howard Publications Ltd. and William Zimmerman’s Superior Publications started publishing comics. F.E. Howard took over the publishing of Super Comics with volume two. Most issues were printed with blank inside covers with no indicia, copyright or trademark information present. Super Comics, volume two, number five included the inscription, “Published monthly by F.E. Howard Publications Ltd., 7 Wellwood Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada”, which was unusual for Canadian comics of that time period. F.E. Howard also published an Archie Comics one-shot, which reprinted the contents of Pep Comics #49. No reference to MLJ Magazines is made and the MLJ logo on the cover is replaced with a FEH logo. Again, inside covers are blank, with no indicia, copyright or trademark information present. There are only five known copies of F.E. Howard’s Archie Comics one-shot left in existence. William Zimmerman’s Superior Publications also jumped on the MLJ bandwagon with the publication of Three Ring MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

Comics, published in Toronto from their Century Comics division. Three Ring was interesting in the fact that it had a cover featuring a re-drawing of Pep Comics #22, yet featured an interior of only funny animal comics. This comic was printed in Canada for limited distribution in the United Kingdom. There is only one known copy in existence. After the war, U.S. based publishers resumed distribution in Canada. F. E. Howard’s titles began being distributed in both Canada and the States. However, American competition proved too overwhelming and he was driven out of business. William Zimmerman’s Superior Publishers not only survived the transition, but also began publishing and received distribution in the United Kingdom. Superior dominated the Canadian comic book market from 1947 until 1956. In addition to using its own name, Superior published under three other imprints: Century Publishing, Herald Printing Duchess Printing, and Randall Publications. Along with distributing in the U.K., Superior also entered the U.S. market. Superior was among the leading reprint firms by the end of 1948. Superior was the only publisher to survive the import deluge of 1951. Superior finally went out of business in ’56.

MLJ’s Archie & Company in the Great White North

Victory Bonds, doing their bit to preserve a free Canada and to maintain our prosperity… Ours are truly All-Canadian magazines, conceived, edited and written in Canada by Canadians, spending our currency among ourselves, adding to our country’s business. They are not printed-in-Canada editions of inferior American magazines, which freeze the Canadian money spent on them for after-war profits and which do not build native industry.

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Last… But Hardly Least…

Super Duck! by Paul Castiglia & Jon B. Cooke It’s a bird… It’s a plane… no, wait, it really is a bird! It’s Super Duck! One memorable footnote in MLJ’s early history was the creation of one of the first wave of superpowered funny animal characters, Super Duck. Debuting in Jolly Jingles #10 [Summer 1943] (which was actually the premiere issue of the kiddie humor title, picking up its numbering from Jackpot Comics, which was cancelled at #9), MLJ’s meta-mallard flew onto the stands within eight months or so of those other anthropomorphic comic characters making their Golden Age debut: Supermouse; Super Rabbit; and Hoppy, the Marvel Bunny, while the animated Mighty Mouse simultaneously was a smash hit on the Hollywood silver screen. As his name suggests, Super Duck was initially a fantasticallyendowed fowl (with powers gained by popping vitamin pills) replete with flowing cape. His costume was blue and red at first, but quickly changed in following stories to red and green, possibly to avoid problems from the publishers of the similarly hued Superman. If his origin tale is any indication, the costumed character’s exploits appear to swipe liberally from the Walt Disney milieu with a vigorous nod to the popularity of super-heroes (albeit a fad then starting to lose reader appeal). Just as the MLJ heroes were, one by one, put into mothballs, so too

was the super-heroic version of our feathered friend, a conceptual shift which occurred very early in the character’s run. In fact, after only six appearances in Jolly Jingles and the premier issue of his own title [Fall ’44], Super Duck’s extraordinary abilities would not last. Upon hanging up his cape and costume in return for shorts and a cap, the bird soon curbed his vitamin habit and traded in super-strength for an explosive temper and mundane, bourgeoisie existence. As blogger David Merrill shared on the Mister Kitty’s Stupid Comics website, “Super Duck spent the next 17 years careening through mid-century American urban life in a pair of lederhosen and a little feathered hat, blowing his top at dumb gags, and battling landlords, beat cops, salesmen, and other prosaic villains.” That’s right: Despite losing the raison d’être for his name, the bird thrived as non-hero until #94 [Dec. 1960]. (Between 1950–52, he even hosted a spin-off title starring little brother Fauntleroy.) Most of the early tales were drawn by creator Al Fagaly, who infused the series with a supporting character that may attest for the book’s longevity. As blogger Merrill explains: For my money, the star here is his long-suffering girlfriend Uwanna. Let’s face it, she makes Daisy Duck look like ten miles of bad road. This thick slice of duck-billed cheesecake single-handedly transforms the feature from yet another lame funny animal comic into the wellspring of disturbing

Alas, Super Duck would only briefly be depicted as an anthropomorphic, pill-popping super-hero, whereupon the character was dressed in lederhosen and feathered cap, and given a mischievous little brother, Fauntleroy, and curvy girlfriend, Uwanna. Above is the cover of Supe’s first appearance and a panel detail from that same issue of Jolly Jingles, #10.

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The blogger alludes to the fact that, in 2002, the great underground cartoonist brazenly produced a seven-page Super Duck story guest-starring Uwanna and Fauntleroy, in Mystic Funnies #3, which (as one might expect from a Crumb tale) included explicit scenes of the feathered couple’s sex life! Merrill attributes the demise of the series to the latter-year absence of a seductively-drawn Uwanna, when the strip suffered disparate art styles. “Who would read a Super Duck story that didn’t star an Uwanna built like a brick duckhouse?” the blogger asks. “Nobody, that’s who.” And thus the “Cockeyed Wonder” faded into comic book history… until a pair of funny animal fansturned-pros returned the character to his super-heroic roots. Freelance writer Jeff Rovin (known for editorial tenures at DC, Warren, and Atlas/Seaboard) recently shared, “I had been researching my Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cartoon Animals [Prentice Hall, 1991] and I had read a bunch of the original Super Ducks. I went to Archie’s headquarters and talked to editor Scott Fulop about bringing Super Duck back. The

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had jump-started the quasidormant anthropomorphic animal genre and a super-heroic Super Duck resurrection seemed both appropriate and timely.” Drawn by TMNT artist Dave Garcia, “The Cat and the Duck, Roboduck, Too,” appeared in Laugh #24 [Oct. ’90], gueststarring Sabrina’s cat, Salem, and the Riverdale gang. Alas, to date, this would be the last official appearance of Super Duck. “I don’t know why Archie only did one [tale],” Rovin said. “Perhaps it didn’t fit with the TMNT titles they had been publishing for two years.”

Above is the splash panel of underground cartoonist legend Robert Crumb’s unauthorized Super Duck tale in Mystic Funnies #3 [2002], published by Fantagraphics.

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

And Last (and Probably Least)… Super Duck!

fetish-fantasies for an entire generation of Americans… Fishnets, clamdiggers, walking shorts, sweaters, that off-the-shoulder telephoning outfit... Uwanna is clearly the winner in any Sexy Duck-Billed Gal contest you care to hold. Just ask R. Crumb!

Garcia, renowned for his creation of Panda Khan, shared, “They said a continuing series was a possibility, but I was doing so many other projects I never gave it a second thought. It was just one more cool credit under my belt. If it had gone to series, I would have liked to get rid of that cat (and all the Archie characters) and just done a full-on super-hero/ funny animal thing. That could have been cool.”

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The MLJ super-heroes as depicted by artist Bob McLeod and colored by Tom Ziuko. This piece was commissioned by art collector Michael Dunne (who has contributed numerous pieces to this book) and it originally appeared as the cover of Alter Ego #82 [Dec. ’08]. It originally appeared slightly cropped, which eliminated Firefly for that printing.

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MLJ Comics… Exposed!

Cross-promotion was in play when the Aug. 1941 edition of Close-Up, a girlie magazine (sporting plenty of gag cartoons and racy pix) published by the MLJ outfit, included a four-page photo feature titled “How Comic Magazines are Made” (cover-blurbed as “Comics Exposed”) that featured a leggy young lady visiting the comic book bullpen. Comics researcher Mike Catron shared these pages with later Archie publisher Michael Silberkleit, who identified his father, Louis, in the second photo on this page, who is described on an intro page (not shown) as “dynamic, vigorous and overflowing with ideas.” Other MLJ bullpenners appear to be “husky” editor/ writer Harry Shorten, “slender” writer Joe Blair, artists Carl Hubbell, Charlie Biro, and perhaps Harry Lucey. Photos are credited to Patricia Gordon and Norman Fallon.

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INTERLUDE The Archie Phenomenon

America’s Teen transformed MLJ and the entire field by Jon B. Cooke Let’s face it: the appeal of the comics depicting the antics of a gang of high schoolers from the mythical American town of Riverdale (as idyllic and improbable a place as Walt Disney’s “Main Street, U.S.A.” attraction) is sex. Not the icky, sweaty, fumbling-in-the-backseat kind of our all-too real world, but more the foolishness and, well, quaint hormone-driven attraction between kids growing ever so slowly into adulthood amid a typically middle-class rural American hamlet. The love triangles, the striving to impress, the pining (with just a dash of angst), the stereotypes and cliques, and overall silliness of the courtship “drama” of pubescent youngsters… That’s what keeps the Archie Comics’ teenage humor juggernaut barreling along, now heading for its eighth decade, an unbroken progression of success for a single comic book genre that cumulatively beats out even the seemingly dominant category of super-heroes. And here’s the thing: though it was the fantastically-powered costumed crimefighters which expanded the comics industry when Superman first hoisted that coupe over his head in 1938—and besides, perhaps, the provocativeness of Matt Baker’s Phantom Lady and other flimsily dressed damsels—what super-heroes lacked was any overt sex appeal. Archie Andrews and company… well, they simply fulfilled a need. Teenagers, a huge portion of the comics readership, are perennially obsessed with the mating ritual, and what better subject to exploit for a company cognizant of the booms and busts of the magazine industry?

As fate would have it, the appellation for kids going through puberty, though long in the making, was coined at almost the exact moment Archie Andrews debuted in Pep Comics. Author Steven Mintz cites in his book Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood, “The first published use of the word teenager occurred in September 1941, when a columnist in Popular Science Monthly remarked about a young person: ‘I never knew teenagers could be so serious.’” Though rarely somber, Archie and his four-color Riverdale gang (at least Betty and Jughead) first appeared—buried 49 pages into the 68page Pep #22 [Dec. ’41], hardly a headliner, in writer Vic Bloom and artist Bob Montana’s superfluous six-pager—and real-life teen readers made the feature a smash hit. Soon enough, the carrot-topped “America’s Typical Teen” would become the engine that drove MLJ Publications, so much so that the company changed its name to Archie Comic Publications in less than five years hence. It is safe to surmise that had it not been for their teenage humor property, MLJ would not have survived the 1940s as a comic book publisher. The Archie formula proved bulletproof, unlike the superheroes (including MLJ’s troupe of mystery men) who were dropping like dud bombs by the end of the Second World War, hardly seven years after their exploding on the scene. The rubric consisted of a small cast of characters all playing their parts in mundane situations: Archie, the headliner, who Craig Yoe describes as “clean cut, well mannered, and well-meaning, but extremely impulsive and well distracted”; his girlfriends, the wholesome, blond girl-next-door Betty and her best friend, Veronica, a spoiled-rich, sultry brunette; pal Jughead, ever seeking a nap and a cheeseburger, always fleeing both labor and female attachment; and nemesis Reggie, the handsome, smart alecky jock with seemingly sinister intent. Supporting cast members abound in the bucolic setting of small town America, where the kids hang out at Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe and attend Riverdale High under the tutelage of Principal Weatherbee and teacher Miss Grundy, but it’s the romantic triangle (epitomized by the illustration at left) that most resonates: Archie yearns for a (relatively) indifferent Veronica and rejects the unceasing adoration of Betty. Of course, other dynamics come into play and desires can vary, but this basic template is the crux of the Archie phenomenon, resonating for threequarters of a century now. (And do not be fooled: male readers—if not necessarily super-hero fans—have consistently comprised a significant portion of the readership of these socalled “girls’ comics.”) Many thousands of Archie comics have milked this classic love triangle, in an apparently infinite range of possibilities.

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Naturally, as the industry is wont to do, MLJ’s industry rivals released their own Archie knock-offs over the years, but none had anywhere near the staying power of Riverdale’s favorite son. (Curiously, the company would itself jump on the kiddie fad created by the popularity of Hank Ketchum’s Dennis the Menace, when the publisher released, in 1956, the appropriately sexless—and actually top-notch series—Little Archie, a grade-school version of the gang, created by Bob Bolling.) Ever wary of envious rivals and confident in the resilience of the property, Archie Comic Publications was ruthlessly protective of the franchise. Harvey Kurtzman, the genius behind MAD, suffered the wraith of Archie’s publisher not just once, but twice because of Archie parodies. When EC Comics published the brilliant (and scathing) “Starchie,” the renowned satirist’s take on juvenile delinquency through the Riverdale prism, Goldwater was reportedly incensed, enough so that as head of the Comics Magazine Association of America (actually founded by EC’s publisher—it’s a long story… as is the tumult suffered by comics in the ’50s), the entire EC line was effectively shut down by the CMAA’s Comics Code Authority. (Ironically, the outfit would release their own— albeit tame—MAD knock-off, Archie’s Madhouse, in mid-1959.) With the Code pretty much neutering the content of comics (and likely saving the industry if making for many awfully bland titles), publishers, precluded from depicting horror and true-life crime, returned to a safer, fantasy-based genre when DC Comics re-booted a squadron of once-defunct costumed characters. The advent of the so-called “Silver Age” engendered a renewed popularity for the old genre (except for the perennially ho-hum Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, all of which survived the ’40s purge, maybe mostly because of their merchandising cache). The long-dormant super-hero was now back in the comic book game. Archie would tepidly return to the genre with The Adventures of the Fly, The Double Life of Private Strong, and The Adventures of the Jaguar, starting in

the Spring of 1959, but it would (as we shall see) take note of the rising popularity of upstart Marvel Comics by 1965 and become determined by the breakout success, in early ’66, of the Batman TV show—by which it was overly influenced, if I may opine—to make the most of its stable of spandex-clad crimefighters. And thus did arrive the Mighty Age. But Archie Andrews and his pals ’n’ gals remained the company’s bread and butter through the flux and changes to other aspects of the industry. During the mid-’60s era of super-mania, the Riverdale denizens would cross over time and again to don skintight apparel, but the mainstay, typically banal American suburban ambiance would prevail, and the line-up, despite declining readership across the board (due to TV and, today, the multiple distractions of our digital life), would have continued success. Coveted distribution through chain stores (Wal-Mart!), licensing (remember “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies, the Number One single of 1969?), clever public relations (Dan Parent’s gay Riverdale character, Kevin Keller, etc.), and the current rebooting of the franchise… these all attest to the resiliency of Archie Andrews, the ultimate champion not only of his publisher, but of an entire genre. Super-heroes ain’t got nothing on America’s typical teen.

Of course, the popularity of their teenage-humor line firmly established MLJ as a major comics publisher, and the resiliency of the Archie line was proved formidable through seven-and-a-half decades. At left is a photo of Louis Silberkleit (left) and John L. Goldwater (right). We are unsure if the middle figure is Maurice Coyne, the other founding partner of MLJ. Publisher Goldwater also spearheaded the Comics Magazine Association of America, which ran the Comics Code Authority, an industry group that advocated self-censorship. The photo is from the personal collection of Michael Silberkleit.

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Chapter Two

Mighty Comics in the 1950s and ’60s

The Shield led off Archie’s Silver Age super-hero publications in the famous Joe Simon/Jack Kirby collaboration, The Double Life of Private Strong ( June 1959), but the threat of a lawsuit by DC Comics (over the character’s supposed similarity to Superman) killed the title after only two issues. Archie soon published another Simon/Kirby opus, The Adventures of the Fly (August 1959), as well as Adventures of the Jaguar (Sept. 1961). By the mid-’60s, the super-heroes were back in full force in both Mighty Comics Presents and The Mighty Crusaders, which featured all of Archie’s super-hero characters teaming up for epic adventures.

Those Mighty Crusaders! The rise and fall—and rise and fall and rise— of Archie’s 1960s super-team of ‘Ultra-Heroes’ by Will Murray [Editor’s Note: This article was edited from a piece that originally appeared in the magazine Comics Feature #56-57 (July & July 1987).]

Part I: Radio Comics

When I began collecting comics in the early 1960s, my allowance was a mere dollar per week. But comic books were only 12 cents. It was enough to buy all the DCs—my first love—and most of the Marvels. And a smattering of lesser titles from the Charlton, Dell, and ACG lines. High on my “smattering” list were the unlikely pair of Adventures of the Fly and Adventures of the Jaguar, products of the Archie Adventure line, formerly known as MLJ Comics, but for some reason now calling themselves Radio Comics. I bought those two titles for simple reasons: they were bright, colorful, and most importantly, between 1961 and 1964, they were practically the only super-hero comics not published by DC or Marvel. They were also relentlessly anonymous. No writer credits were given, and the artist never signed his At right is the Mighty Comics Group brand icon that adorned covers of the imprint’s line—note its similarity to the Marvel Comics Group icon of the day. On next page is Paul Reinman’s Mighty Heroes art.

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work—they were just very simple stories of a couple of well-drawn and fairly new super-heroes. I never ran across any of the pre-1961 issues of either title, so I never suspected that it hadn’t always been that way. Nor did I have an inkling that the figure of the Fly buzzing out of the magazine’s bold logo—it had to be bold because the title was so wimpy—was actually drawn by no less than Jack Kirby. But I get ahead of my story. Adventures of the Fly was the older of the two titles—its first issue had a cover date of Aug. 1959—and my favorite of the pair. Blond attorney Thomas Troy possessed a magic ring which, when he rubbed it in the fashion of Aladdin and his magic lamp, transformed him into the heroic Fly. Clad in a spiffy green and yellow outfit, a buzz gun hanging at his hip, and clear fly wings growing out of his shoulders, he was half-man, half-insect. The Fly could fly, spin hard steel cocoons around his body, and communicate with an obedient insect world. He also possessed the proportionate strength of an insect—a superpower analogy than went back to Superman’s earliest days. In many respects, the Fly was an anticipation of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ant-Man, two characters on which Jack Kirby would later claim co-creator status.

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From the Michael Dunne collection Color by Gregg Whitmore.

One thing that fascinated me was the Fly’s costume. It was a bright yellow and green. But no ordinary green. Not quite

blue-green, and certainly not olive green, it lay somewhere inbetween. Definitely an insect green. I’ve rarely seen this specific hue before or since, and I’m told that in colorist parlance it’s known as Y3BR2—which means that it’s a blend of 50% yellow, 25% red and a solid blue. Not every comic book company had the palette to reproduce it properly. Apparently it was formulated to mimic the iridescent green of the common housefly. By contrast, The Jaguar’s costume was a bright red, relieved only by spotted leopard-skin boots and belt, with a black jaguar symbol etched on his chest. He was a sort of animal-powered version of the Fly, and John Rosenberger originated him, in concert with his uncredited Fly scripter, Robert Bernstein. I

Mighty Comics/Radio Comics/ Archie Adventure Index Adventures of the Fly

Double Life of Private Strong

Adventures of the Jaguar

Fly Man

October 1961 to September 1963 #150–160, #168

Laugh Comics

August 1964 to September 1965 #1–8

August 1959 to May 1965 #1–31

September 1961 to November 1963 #1–15

Archie’s Madhouse October 1965 #43

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June 1959 to August 1959 #1–2

July 1965 to September 1966 #32–39 October 1961 to March 1963 #127–144

Mighty Comics

November 1966 to October 1967 #40–50

Mighty Crusaders

November 1965 to October 1966 #1–7

Pep

Chapter Two: MLJ Heroes in the 1950s and ’60s

The stories were simple and straightforward, but in truth, dull. The Fly fought the usual hoods, an arch-enemy uninspiredly called the Spider, and hosts of alien invaders. Alien invaders were a Fly staple. Curiously, almost all of them were similar saurian bipeds armed with death rays, doom robots, and names like Lxo III, Roxr, and Bra-kr. But the art sparkled. It was mostly the work of John Rosenberger, now deceased, who drew in what might be described as the Silver Age DC house style—crisp and clear of line and devoid of frills—only he was doing it mostly for Archie/Radio.

THE Shadow

Super Heroes vs. Super Villains July 1966 #1

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Sphinx, she first appeared in Adventures of The Fly #9 (Nov. 1960) as a villainess who attempted to enslave that book’s hero. Failing that, she turned her sights on her natural counterpart, the Jaguar. In the process she fell victim to evil entities from a two-dimensional world, and the Jaguar had to rescue her. Naturally, she fell in love with him—and, for the rest of the series, was disposed toward trickery and mischief in her quest to become Mrs. Jaguar. The pair first met in Adventures of the Jaguar #4 ( Jan. 1962), over a year after her introduction in The Fly. suspect their inspiration for the character came from the Jaguar luxury sports car, which in the late 1950s was taking America by storm. As revealed in his first issue (dated Sept. 1961), the Jaguar was really Ralph Hardy, a zoologist who stumbled upon an Inca temple in Peru while hunting the fabled white jaguar. In the ruins, he discovered a Jaguar Belt. Donning it, he became the Jaguar, imbued with animal strength, invincibility, and the power to telepathically communicate with all animals. He added a pair of nucleon-jet energy pods to his belt and thus acquired the un-jaguarlike power of flight. How a zoologist possessed the technical genius to invent a flying belt was never addressed. Where the Fly’s magical transformation included a yellow aviatorstyle helmet and goggles to conceal his true identity, when Ralph Hardy became the Jaguar, his pencil-thin Clark Gable mustache simply—disappeared. The transformation obviously worked in the same suspension-of-disbelief way that Clark Kent’ glasses confused everybody’s perception of Superman’s rugged face. In fact, there were a lot of Superman touches to the Jaguar series. He had a snoopy girlfriend, Jill Ross, who was pretty sure the Jaguar was really Ralph. And, like Superman’s Lois Lane, whom she more than resembled, Jill Ross had plenty of competition. There was the green-skinned sea siren Kree-Nal, who loved the Jaguar with the same watery fervor that mermaid Lori Lemaris loved the Man of Steel.

Cat-Girl possessed supernatural powers such as flight and invisibility, as well as telepathic control over felines. She also changed costume a lot, first appearing in a tawny leotard, adding leopard-skin trim after her first encounter with the Jaguar, then changing to a blue miniskirt and tiger(!)-striped tunic, and, in a girlish touch, a 1950s ponytail. Despite that, there was more than a touch of dominatrix to her bad-girl persona, which set her apart from comic book femme fatales of that more innocent era. In Adventures of the Jaguar #13, Cat-Girl reappeared as society girl Lydia Fellin, having lost her supernatural powers as a result of strontium buildup from atmospheric nuclear tests. She also lost her cougar-colored ponytail when her sandy hair turned as black as an unlucky cat. But she still pined for the Jaguar and helped him to fight the Cat Gang. It looked like the beginning of a new chapter in their lives, but the Jaguar’s magazine was cancelled a mere two issues later. Alas for ongoing subplots. Superman-like plot devices were also a Fly staple. He wasn’t burdened with a snoopy girlfriend, but he did inherit the equivalent to a Supergirl. Actress Kim Brand (think Kim Novak) first appeared in issue #13 in 1961. The Fly happened to save her life when she fell from a roof and he caught her—a standard “Superman” story opening—and they became friendly. Elsewhere in that issue, an ad alerted readers to watch for the first appearance of Fly-Girl in the very next issue. (Three guesses who that was likely to be!)

Our hero again bumps into Kim Brand in The Fly #14 and their friendship—it was never a Then there was romantic interest—resumes. Along comes Cat-Girl. the Metal Monster, an alien whose powers strikingly resemble those of future In many ways Hulk villain the Metal Master, but Cat-Girl was more intriguing than who looks like a silver robot with even the Jaguar. The an ice cube for a head. While the modern reinFly has his hands full fighting off the carnation Metal Monster’s robotic menaces, of the Various vignettes of the starring characters of the Second Age of the MLJ/Archie Super-Heroes: the Shield (art by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby), Fly-Girl, the Fly, and the Jaguar. The latter three are drawn by John Rosenberger.

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The Anti-Crime Squad

The first real appearance of the Mighty Crusaders

Note the resemblance of the suggested “Anti-Crime Squad” cover art drawn by Archie Adventure Series’letter writer “Paul Seydor” (see article for an explanation regarding the quotes) to the then-recent DC and Marvel team books’ respective debuts.

by Rik Offenberger In the letters page of Adventures of the Jaguar #9 [Oct. 1962], reader Paul Seydor suggested that Archie create a super-hero team consisting of Lancelot Strong/the Shield, the Black Hood, the Jaguar, the Fly, and Fly-Girl. He called this team the “Anti-Crime Squad.” The reader was likely inspired by the other popular super-hero team books that had great success in 1962: DC Comics’ Justice League of America and Marvel’s Fantastic Four. When Archie debuted the Mighy Crusaders team in the pages of Fly Man #31 (May 1965), the line-up was pretty similar. Lancelot Stong was replaced by a new Shield and Jaguar was substituted by the Web, but it was a team of five heroes and did revive the Golden Age hero the Black Hood. In fact, it appeared odd that Archie would publish the letter from a DC letter writer that so closely matched the actual team, and that the editor would ask fans to comment on another fan’s letter. I contacted Dr. Paul Seydor at Chapman University, where he MLJ Heroes in the 1950s and ’60s

is a professor. He has a unique background, combining a Ph.D. in American Civilization with a triple emphasis in American Literature, American Intellectual History, and Film from the University of Iowa, with scholarly research and writing, and a major career in filmmaking honored by an Academy Award nomination and an American Cinema Editors award. In the industry, his work with a long list of impressive directors, including Ron Shelton, is testament to his reputation. Paul has taught at both the University of Southern California and the University of Iowa. His books on director Sam Peckinpah gave birth to a reevaluation of Peckinpah as a master director in American cinema. Paul said, “This must be someone using my name to get an in with the editors at the time, because I never drew such a cover and in fact never read these characters. I mostly liked DC comics at the time, and it was to their various publications, almost all the ones edited by Julius Schwartz, that I wrote most of my letters.… I read Archie comics for a good while, Rik, but I could never understand why he was so besotted with Betty. I always thought the brunette Veronica the far dishier girl of the two.”

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career. Typically, they teamed up at least once an issue, but Fly-Girl always had a five-page solo story at the back of the book. Some of my favorite stories of this period actually involved FlyGirl; like the time a trio of juvenile delinquents glommed her magic ring and suddenly she had to defeat three evil Fly-Girls or she’d never be able to revert to normal Kim Brand again. It should go without saying that Fly-Girl’s powers were identical to those of The Fly—including a deadly weakness. Both were vulnerable to chlordane, a component of insecticides. It was their kryptonite. It was even colored kryptonite green—and was also as overused as kryptonite, which is strange, because the Jaguar had no specific weakness, and that never seemed to get in the way of a good story in his title. The Fly and the Jaguar continued their roughly parallel adventures, which in turn were nearly identical to Superman’s adventures, until 1963 when, after 15 issues, Adventures of the Jaguar was quietly cancelled.

Kim receives an unexpected visitation. That visitor is Turan, the self-styled emissary from the Fly Dimension. He explains that, years ago, he appeared before Thomas Troy and presented him with the magic ring that transmogrified—is there a better word?—him into the Fly. Turan, who looks like a man except for his insect-like complex eyes and costume, tells Kim that the Fly needs a helper. And you’re it, honey. In the space of a page, Kim Brand becomes Fly-Girl—or, in alternating stories, Fly-Girl with a hyphen. (If I ever become a super-hero, I hope my origin is that painless!) Her costume is identical to the Fly’s except for a yellow domino mask and the lack of a helmet impeding her long hair from flowing in the wind. Good thing, too. She was a doll. Together, the Fly and Fly-Girl mop up the Metal Monster and begin their new joint Though he was producing his daily syndicated newspaper comic strip, Sky Masters of the Space Force, Jack Kirby found time to work again with old partner Joe Simon to help launch the late ’50s’ Archie super-hero line.

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The Fly kept going, but he lost John Rosenberger’s liquid-lined artwork when that artist took on two new Radio Comics titles, the Dr. Kildare-inspired Young Dr. Masters and a revival of The Shadow. Artist John Giunta replaced him on The Fly. At that time, I didn’t warm to Giunta’s work. It was thin, scratchy, and unappealing. Little did I dream that Giunta was in fact returning to the series after a long absence. There was a lot I little dreamed, because when Turan told Kim Brand the story of how he’d come to give Thomas Troy the magic Fly Ring, he left out a teensy little fact: he hadn’t gifted it to Thomas Troy, attorney at law—but to little Tommy Troy, orphan! That tale had been told in the Adventures of the Fly #1, cover-dated August, 1959. Young Tommy Troy is shipped from an orphanage to live with Ben and Abigail March, reputed wizards. The Marches work the little tyke pretty hard, and one day he seeks refuge in their dusty attic, where he finds the Fly Ring caught in a spider web. Rubbing it, he is astonished when Turan appears, explaining that his people originally ruled the Earth with magic. But wars and catastrophes ruined their civilization. Some Fly people were reduced to mere houseflies, but others escaped to another dimension, where they rule anew.

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Turan explains that he has been searching for someone “pure of heart” to fight injustice on earth. By rubbing the Fly Ring, Tommy is projected into the Fly world, but assumes the form of the adult Fly on Earth. I’m not clear how the metaphysics of that works, because in all subsequent issues, Tommy simply becomes the Fly à la Billy Batson and Captain Marvel. That’s how the character’s creators, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, explained it back in 1959. I would never have dreamed that Jack Kirby, who in my early collecting days was responsible for the Fantastic Four, had co-originated the Fly, but he had. I should have suspected as much, I suppose. Somewhere around 1963, I found a back copy of Radio Comics’ The Double Life of Private Strong #1 ( June 1959). A Simon & Kirby production, it premiered two months before Adventures of the Fly. It was a revival of MLJ’s patriotic super-hero from the 1940s, the Shield, except that the character in costume and origin now closely resembled Simon &

Kirby’s Captain America in virtually all respects except the lack of a… shield. No matter. This Shield was Lancelot Strong, an orphan adopted by a farm couple who discover he has superhuman powers. Lancelot grows up, joins the Army as a bumbling private, and battles injustice Captain America-style—with a little of Simon & Kirby’s Fighting American thrown in. I suppose not calling the comic book The Shield hurt sales, and not reviving the original Shield—who in fact predated Captain America by quite a few months—annoyed some Golden Age fans. But most importantly, Simon & Kirby merely launched the character, hiring a battery of other talents to draw some of the stories for them. That may have doomed the magazine, although the story goes that DC Comics objected to the character on the debatable ground that his powers suggested a star-spangled Superman. The Double Life of Private Strong died with issue #2.

On the page that follows: Perhaps cognizant of the growing threats of television and movies in grabbing the attention of potential comics readers, Joe Simon implemented the “Wide-Angle Scream,” which artists Jack Kirby and George Tuska used quite effectively as a double-page spread in the center of early issues of The Fly and Private Strong.

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MLJ Done the S&K Way

Joe Simon & Jack Kirby jumpstart Archie’s heroes by Jon B. Cooke Well before the immortal team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby had created The Fly and The Double Life of Private Strong for Archie Comic Publications, Inc., they had encounters with the publisher back in the pre-Archie MLJ days. Simon wrote in The Comic Book Makers [1990, Crestwood / II Publications] that the competitor was complaining about a villain named the Hangman that appeared in the Captain America Comics #6 [Sept. ’41] story, “The Strange Case of Who Killed Doctor Vordoff,” which had just been published. The Marvel publisher called his young editor into the office. Simon wrote, “Goodman explained: ‘[MLJ] has a character named the Hangman. [They are] very upset over this. Our Hangman is nothing like his. [They haven’t] got a case but lawsuits are expensive and we’d better go over there and talk to [them].’” Given MLJ’s Hangman had only debuted two months prior, likely very little time before Cap #6 went to press and thus making it impossible for S&K to know of the Comet’s avenging brother, it’s difficult to understand MLJ’s pique, but Goodman and Simon dutifully went to the MLJ’s Lafayette Street office “off the beaten path.” Yet perhaps a more covetous motive was in play. After Goodman agreed never to use the villain again, Simon shared: [MLJ’s publisher] patted me on the shoulder. “You guys have the touch,” he said. “If you want to make a change, we can make a deal. Goodman smiled feebly, but inwardly was fuming. “Pirates,” he muttered as we left. “The field is full of pirates.” I thought back to the time when he had hired me away from Funnies, Incorporated, and agreed.

(Simon also revealed in his Comic Book Makers that MLJ had previously taken issue with an accoutrement of Captain America, when MLJ objected to the shape of the Sentinel of Liberty’s shield in the first issue. Referring to MLJ’s super-hero the Shield, Simon related that the outfit protested “because it was similar to the imprint on the chest area of his character’s costume. To placate him, we changed… [the] traditional shield to a round one, which was handier anyway….”) The publisher would get work from the Simon & Kirby team in 1959, just as the partnership was about to permanently end. The Archie publisher asked Simon to create and package a pair of costumed character titles, telling the writer/editor/artist, “Super-heroes are about to come back.” The first property developed was the Silver Spider/Spiderman revamp, The Fly (see page 132). The second book I proposed to [Archie] was The Double Life of Private Strong. He was an Army private, who did super-hero chores in his spare time in a colorful red, white, and blue costume, which was, more or less, a salute to Archie’s old Shield character. Private Strong was… sort of like Captain America. [The publisher] hadn’t * MLJ was particularly sensitive about Captain America, feeling the patriotic hero’s appearance 14 months after the Shield was an encroachment by Marvel.

MLJ Heroes in the 1950s and ’60s

forgiven Captain America for wiping out the Shield saleswise.* I hated the Shield concept. [The Archie publisher] loved it. Before I left, I had an agreement to produce two comic books on a regular schedule.

“While sales figures were not spectacular,” Simon said, “they still showed enough promise to merit continued publication.” But a personnel transition was in play. “John Goldwater’s son, Richard, in the few weeks since he was out of college, had ‘worked his way up to editor-in-chief… He came to the conclusion that the artwork on Private Strong and The Fly was not up to his standards. It was his opinion that… probably the most respected group [of artists] ever to appear between one set of covers should be replaced with slicker styles. In his word, ‘like the DC artists.’ I suggested Richard handle the books himself.” Years later, Simon discovered that DC had sent Archie a ceaseand-desist letter, claiming the Shield too closely resembled Superman. The Double Life of Private Strong was cancelled with its second issue. The Fly would last for 31 issues, ending in 1965 (though months later rebooted as Fly Man). 127

Besides the parody comic Super-Fan (more a humorous sports strip), has the great cartoonist Jack Davis ever drawn a super-hero story? Why, glad you asked! Because his pencils appear in The Fly #3 [Nov. ’59], with inks possibly by Joe Simon. Other artists who worked on the Simon-helmed books include George Tuska and Al Williamson. Below is a panel detail by Jack Kirby from The Double Life of Private Strong #2 [Aug. ’59].

the adult Thomas Troy, lawyer, stands in his place. Adventures of the Fly was a similar packaging job. Simon & Kirby dropped out after only four issues. With the fifth, Robert Bernstein took on the scripting chores. The artists ran the gamut from the forgotten Bill Vigoda to John Giunta. With issue #5, Giunta took over the art chores completely. In that issue, Tommy Troy and the Marches disappear—and

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Bernstein and Giunta redefined the series and perhaps saved it from early extinction. It was during these 1960 issues that CatGirl first appeared. In issue #7, the company’s greatest Golden Age hero returned in a story called “The Fly and The Black Hood Join Forces!” Next issue, The Fly teamed up with a rather bland nonKirby Shield. The Shield seldom appeared after that, but Black Hood emerged as a frequent drop-in guest.

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Black Hood was no Superman as super-heroes went, but back in his heyday (the 1940s) the acrobatic Black Hood, alias patrolman Kip Burland, had headlined his own comic book, pulp magazine, and even radio program—the latter distinction one he shared with Archie Andrews. I imagine the name Radio Comics is a holdover from those halcyon years. Staring with issue #11 (May 1961), John Rosenberger took over the art, and the golden age of the Fly—as far as I’m concerned—had commenced. Regardless of how limp Bernstein’s scripts were, his stories were always a feast for the eyes. In them, the Fly fought the colorful menaces that were a hallmark of the Bernstein-Rosenberger years. In fact, the Fly and Fly-Girl acquired such a collection of foes that, in issue #21, six of the worst, including the Spider and the Metal Monster, teamed up as the Anti-Fly League. Over the next several issues they spun a wheel of fortune-like pointer to see who would next take a crack as the stub-winged duo. One by one, they failed. Evidently, they became dispirited and prematurely gave up their plans, for the idea petered out before every member had his or her shot. You’d have thought they would have all ganged up at once for a sure-fire victory. But Silver age villains weren’t very sophisticated.

It was probably no coincidence that, six months before the AntiFly League surfaced, Superman had had his first encounter with a very similar group, who called themselves the Superman Revenge Squad. Evidently, sales took off during the Bernstein/Rosenberger tenure, because the companion Jaguar title was launched in September of 1961—the very same month Fly-Girl debuted. All three superheroes grew so popular they took turns appearing in Pep Comics and Laugh Comics between stories featuring Archie Andrews and his pals. But that era, too, was short-lived. The last of these was printed late in 1963. An inventory story from an unpublished issue of Adventures of The Jaguar, it took him back to his origin. The tale was called “The Return of the White Jaguar” and it appeared in Pep for January 1964. Back in Peru, Hardy and his group are waylaid by bandits who make off with his wallet and Jaguar Belt. Tracking them to the Inca temple where he had originally found the magic Jaguar Belt, Hardy comes into the sights of a sniper when the White Jaguar itself appears out of nowhere and cuffs the sniper into fleeing for his life. Other bandits open fire, but the rounds go right through the supernatural creature.

Certainly a very captivating aspect of the earliest Archie super-hero comics of the late ’50s and early ’60s was the inclusion of two-page stories featuring the Fly and the Shield. On the previous page, the characters even met, in this sequence entitled “The Search” in The Fly #1 [Aug. ’59], promoting the first issue of The Double Life of Private Strong [June ’59] by Joe Simon (and possibly Jack Kirby). Some sequences recapped the characters’ origins, as seen in this snippet from The Fly #3 [Nov. ’59], with art and story by Joe Simon.

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The Pre-Mighty Comics Early glimmerings of the Mighty Crusaders

From the initial appearances of the Archie Silver Age heroes, it was apparent that the respective titular characters shared a comic-book universe. Even before the debut of his first issue, the Fly would initially be seen in a two-page short story in The Double Life of Private Strong #1, and a common world was made explicit in “The Search,” a Shield two-pager which guest-stars the Fly (in The Fly #1) and puts the two Archie Adventure Series stars in the same room (albeit the Shield in his secret military identity). While nowhere near the crossover traffic that would be coming during the “Mighty Comics” years (where the titles would almost burst at the staples with characters, whether revived from the Golden Age or new), early issues of The Adventures of the Fly did, on occasion, include his first Archie Adventures pal, a.k.a. Private Strong, among them #8 [Sept. ’60] when our flying hero and the Shield team up and try to figure out why a group of criminals costumed as supernatural creatures are seemingly invulnerable. Natch, While the Shield and the Black Hood did appear in a handful of Fly stories, they appeared more frequently (in one form or another) as martial arts instructors in a series of one-pagers that appeared in the Fly and Jaguar titles. Art at right by John Rosenberger.

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the pair solve the conundrum and vow to get together again soon. Apparent they both inhabit Capital City, a generic New York metropolis stand-in. A double-bill commenced in Adventures of the Fly #13 [ July ’61] when Fly-Girl (Kim Brand, model/ film actress) joined her chum for the duration of the Archie Adventure/Mighty Comics run, often getting her own back-up stories in AOTF, as well as in various issues of Pep and Laugh—where her partner and the Jaguar respectively also had stories. In fact, in the pages of Laugh #134, Golden Age hero the Black Hood (who also guest-starred in AOTF #10) joins up with the green-&-yellow to stop the altering of reality by a sleeping kid! (The Fly, the Shield, and the Black Hood

would also instruct readers in the martial arts in one-pagers, instructors which also included the Fly alter ego, Tommy Troy.) One two-pager starring the Fly by Joe Simon in The Double Life of Private Strong [#2, Aug. ’59] gave us the first appearance of Tommy’s orphanage pals, a virtual re-imagining of the classic Simon & Kirby kid gang, the Newsboy Legion, as a club called “The Boy Sentinels.” Alas, this would prove the lads’ only exploit. The first overt Mighty Universe story, though, has to be in The Adventures of the Fly #31 [May 1965], the final issue before the Archie Adventure Comics line is (unofficially) rebooted as the Mighty Comics Group. In the rear pages of that issue, “Fly-Girl” Kim Brand (who not only co-starred with her crime-fighting chum in the headline feature, but also rated her own solo back-up series in AOTF and, on occasion, in Pep and Laugh) meets up with the Comet, a sort-of revival of the famed MLJ character (whose death prompted the coming of the Hangman). Here the hero dons a rainbow-hued helmet and says he is the former leader of a distant planet called Altrox where everyone had super-abilities. Naturally, he demands that the Archie Adventure fly girl we know as FlyGirl must marry him to become queen of Altrox. While the character vows to go back to his home planet, instead he stays on Earth and eventually joins the Mighty Crusaders. (The true background of the Comet, one that connects him directly with comics’ Golden Age, would be revealed in due course.) Admittingly, the pre-Mighty Universe wasn’t teeming with heroes, but—guaranteed—a mightily crowded population explosion was soon to come!

When the bandits are all felled, the White Jaguar picks up the Jaguar Belt in its mouth and offers it to Hardy. So ends the original career of The Jaguar, exactly where it all began. After The Jaguar had bitten the dust and John Giunta resumed his Fly art chores, things went downhill. The Spider returned, but he was no longer the roly-poly costumed Spider Spry of the Simon & Kirby era, but a bald master criminal who bore a suspicious resemblance to the ’60s version of Lex Luthor—right down to the habitual prison gray uniform. Coincidence? I doubt it. For the new scripter was no less than Jerry Seigel, co-creator of “Superman,” who did most of the scripts in Adventures of The Fly #29 and #30.

One unusual story in Fly #30 introduced the handsome rainbow-helmeted Comet, a native of the planet Altrox, who came to Earth to marry Fly-Girl. But Fly-Girl’s annoying suspicions—she thinks he might be an alien invader come to trick her—put him off, and he departed in disgust. The Comet was actually a revival of the Golden Age hero who had worn a very different costume in the old MLJ days. This was the final story in the last issue of Adventures of The Fly. Ten months had passed between the previous issue and this one. So clearly the title was limping along until the flyswatter of cancellation struck.

Cat-Girl was so fondly recalled by readers after her frequent and feisty appearances in The Adventures of the Fly and the companion Jaguar title, she was included in a Hollywood movie pitch decades later.

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John Rosenberger went to work for DC Comics. Robert Bernstein jumped over to Marvel, where, as “R. Berns,” he scripted early 131

The Spider and the Fly

The curious history of the Fly (and Spider-Man!) by Jon B. Cooke

Harvey Comics passes on the property. Fast-forward to early 1959. When Archie Comics publisher John L. Goldwater was seeking new super-heroes, Simon said, “I made a verbal pitch… ‘A super-hero who climbs straight up and down a building using a fine thread that he holsters in his costume like a fishing tackle. We’ll call him the Fly.” I hadn’t brought the Silver Spider pages with me. It wouldn’t go down well if Goldwater ever learned that he was getting a character that had been rejected by another publisher. Anyway, Goldwater liked the idea.

After Simon & Kirby’s departure from The Fly, with #4, preteen Tommy Troy was changed to attorney Thomas Troy, who soon gained a platonic sidekick, Fly-Girl. This page, top, is the original art of a Silver Spider page. Art by C.C. Beck. Above is a panel from The Fly #1 with art by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Right is detail from The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2. Art by Steve Ditko.

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& © Joe Simon Silver Spider TM

Admitting it was a play on the Captain Marvel origin, Simon related the concept in The Comic Book Makers: “There is a troublesome boy named Tommy Troy, living in an orphanage, who is expelled into the custody of a weird elderly couple. In their attic, he is fascinated by a spider weaving a web. In the web, Tommy finds a hinged lid on top. When the boy opens the lid, a genie appears and announces he will grant Tommy one wish. Tommy wishes to be a super-hero.” The lad wore a costume emblazoned with a spider and wielded a “web pistol.”

Estate.

Around 1953, Joe Simon had a super-hero concept to pitch to his publisher pal Alfred Harvey, whose outfit, Harvey Comics, would become best known for its Casper, the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich comics. “At first I called it ‘Spiderman,’” Simon writes in My Life in Comics [2011], “and I planned to turn it over to writer Jack Oleck and [revered Captain Marvel co-creator] artist C.C. Beck… I had some reservations about the character’s name, and changed it to the Silver Spider.”

In The Spirit Magazine #39 [Feb. 1983], Jack Kirby told Will Eisner that he offered the Silver Spider concept to Marvel editor Stan Lee. “Joe had already moved on. So the idea was already there when I talked to Stan.” In later years, Kirby said definitively, “I created Spider-Man. We decided to give it to Steve Ditko.” For his part, Stan Lee wrote a five-page article, “How I Invented Spider-Man,” for Quest magazine [ July–Aug. ’77]. Neither Kirby or Simon are mentioned. On his website, in a 2011 posting, one-time Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter recalled seeing Kirby’s designs in 1969. “I remember that his version of Spider-Man had a ‘Web-Gun’ and wore trunks, I think.” In Alter Ego V2 #3, Steve Ditko, acknowledged co-creator of the character, remembered, “Stan said Spider-Man would be a teenager with a magic ring which could transform him into an adult hero—Spider-Man. I said it sounded like the Fly, which Joe Simon had done for Archie Publications. I didn’t believe Jack was involved in that feature because the issues I had seen lacked the usual Kirby flair.”

Spider-Man TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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John Rosenberger original art, The Adventures of the Jaguar #2 [Oct. ’61] c.over.

“Iron Man” and “Thor” epics before disappearing from the field. Earlier in his career, he had scripted “Captain America” and other Atlas features for Stan Lee. It was later revealed by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby that “The Fly” was a reinvention of a concept their studio had developed with Captain Marvel’s C.C. Beck. When Archie’s John Goldwater had asked them in the late ‘50s for some new super-heroes, they had salvaged one called “The Silver Spider” and redrawn him as “The Fly,” taking the name from the famous 1958 science-fiction/horror film. Costume elements from another aborted Simon & Kirby concept, “Night Fighter,” were added to the mix. Further, Simon has recounted how he and Kirby and their artists MLJ Heroes in the 1950s and ’60s

were booted off The Fly in favor of talents willing to emulate the DC house look. Kirby went over to Timely (not yet called Marvel), where he has claimed that he offered still another version of “The Silver Spider” to Stan Lee. Out of this came “Spider-Man,” certainly the most successful super-hero since Captain Marvel. Given the shifting winds of the comic book field in the early 1960s, all of this would soon become highly ironic. With their hero crossovers and villains migrating between titles, Radio Comics had been dabbling in the kind of continuity that would revolutionize super-hero comics once Marvel got going. For, only six months after his cancellation, The Fly was destined to return, with a new name, new powers, and an entirely new look. 133

The first two issues of The Shadow were solid efforts, the work of Fly scripter Robert Bernstein and Jaguar artist John Rosenberger. But, with the third issue, the character was turned inside out like a sock puppet. They took away his dark blue-black business suit and matching cloak, and handed him an ugly blue and green super-hero costume and a trick multi-pistol. Siegel, who had grown up on the Shadow’s pulp exploits and should have known better, was responsible for the re-imagining—or should we call it undoing? Some responsibility could also be attached to the new house artist, Paul Reinman. He had been working for Marvel Comics, doing short back-ups for Tales of Suspense and inking Jack Kirby’s pencils on classic Marvels like The Incredible Hulk #1 and The X-Men. No great penciler, Reinman was a pedestrian inker who stepped on Kirby’s pencils until the magic was, in the immortal words of Little Lulu’s Tubby, “mashed to a crisp.” The Shadow became very boring very fast. In virtually every issue the hero fought Shiwan Khan. But even as that title was marching into oblivion, Radio Comics unexpectedly revived The Fly. I really missed the Fly after his title was cancelled in the summer of 1964. So you can imagine my pleasure when, the following spring, the character came buzzing back. I can still recall my initial surprise at finding issue #31 at the corner drugstore. The cover showed a weakened Fly about to be pounced on by several thugs led by the Spider, now tricked out in a weird cobwebby purple outfit. Three other super-heroes were swooping to his rescue. I recognized the Black Hood and the Comet—but the latter’s costume was an ugly orange and green instead of the pristine red and white of his revival appearance. The third character

Part II—Mighty Comics

It was not the first time that the company that had once been MLJ had put its super-heroes out to pasture. By 1947, they had canceled all of their Golden Age mystery men except “The Shield” and “The Black Hood,” who hung around for another year or so in Pep Comics and the renamed Laugh Comics.

Below is Paul Reinman art used for a Mighty Comics house ad, featuring from left, FlyMan, Fly-Girl, the Comet, Black Hood, the Shield, Dusty, and the Web. From the Michael Dunne collection. At right is artist Mike Machlan’s pastiche of The Mighty Crusaders “Too Many Super-Heroes” cover, #4 [Apr. ’66]. This was also seen as cover art for Alter Ego #96 [Aug. 2010]. Also from the Michael Dunne collection, colors by Tom Ziuko.

But Radio Comics was not completely defunct yet. They continued publishing their revival of The Shadow. Launched in 1964 to keep the Archie Adventure line going, at least in name, Radio’s Shadow was updated—a helping of James Bond, a touch of the old-time radio version of the Shadow, and a dollop—in the form of the character’s old archnemesis, Shiwan Khan—from the Shadow’s pulp magazine. His trademark slouch hat was nowhere to be seen—out of fashion, no doubt.

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called himself the Shield, but he wasn’t the exciting star of The Double Life of Private Strong. This Shield wore a clumsy body “shield” as part of his star-spangled panoply. In those days I was ignorant of the Golden Age Shield. Most disconcertingly, the book was now called Fly Man—not exactly a title calculated to walk off the newsstands. But it was the familiar Fly I knew, despite a minor but important alteration in one of his costume colors. The classy insect green had become olive drab. “Drab” was a good word for everything associated with the new Fly Man. But I bought all subsequent issues anyway. Call it misguided youthful nostalgia. This return issue featured “The Fly-Man’s Partners in Peril,” pitting him against his old nemesis, the Spider. That villain’s efforts are thwarted as, in turn, the Shield, the Comet, and Black Hood come to his rescue—the latter astride a ridiculous robot horse named Nightmare! The Spider becomes fed up with the interference and sends the super-heroes an anonymous message inviting them to join a non-existent group called the Mighty Crusaders. It’s a trap. But our heroes win handily, and conclude the issue’s festivities wondering if the Mighty Crusaders is such a bad idea, after all…. Aside from his new name, Fly-Man (sometimes non-hyphenated as “Fly Man”) suddenly possesses new powers to augment his original insect abilities. These were the ability to shrink or grow to any size—powers lifted from Marvel’s Giant-Man, without question. But that wasn’t all writer Jerry Siegel purloined.

later, was hen-pecked by his wife. At Marvel, Stan Lee gave his heroes real-life issues that made their struggles seem even more heroic. Siegel gave his heroes problems that reduced them to sad-sack status. It’s difficult to say now, over 40 years later, whether Siegel was just doing a hack imitation, or was actually lampooning the Marvel approach to comics. He and artist Paul Reinman certainly were poking fun at the former Stanley Lieber’s signing his stories “Stan Lee” when they bylined theirs as “Jerry Ess” and “Paul Are.” But either way, the result was sad. Sad, because this was the work of the pioneering Jerry Siegel, and sad because he literally trashed most of the Golden Age MLJ heroes he revived in the back pages of Fly Man— and in The Mighty Crusaders, which sprang up in the summer of 1966. That inaugural issue revealed that the Shield was the son of the original Shield, who had been turned to stone by a villain known as the Eraser. The Web was simply a middle-aged guy come out of retirement over his wife’s shrewish objections. Captain America-style, Black Hood had lived through the 1940s and ’50s without growing old because he had been dematerialized by another villain until an experiment returned him to solid form. (Siegel completely ignored the fact that Black Hood had been appearing in Adventures of the Fly since 1960.) The Comet had been living on the planet Altrox with his alien bride until she was murdered and he lost his original powers, which were replaced by a bizarre rainbow helmet. (Unfortunately, no one told Siegel that the Golden Age Comet was murdered in 1941 and was replaced by his brother, who became known as the Hangman.)

Siegel revived the Hangman, too—but as a former super-hero gone bad. Another In subsequent issues, Fly Man started reading more and MLJ hero, the magical Wizard, reappeared more like a Marvel comic—a bad Marvel comic. But the Stan as a bearded old goat turned ultra-villain. For some Lee influence was obvious, from the jocular and melodramatic reason, Siegel called his costume characters “uldialogue to story titles like “Evil Lurks Amongst Us” and “Beware... tra-heroes” and “ultra-villains”—rarely invoking the Blockbuster!” Siegel’s super-heroes bickered among one another. the modifier “super.” It’s ironic that the father They had problems. In real life, of the first super-hero would do the Shield was unemployable that, but perhaps he couldn’t At top is a panel that reveals new growing powers for the character after he changed his name from the Fly to Fly-Man. Above was the ill-conceived robot horse Nightmare, cluck Joe Higgins. The Comet stomach the adjective any longer. which, for a brief spell, was used by the Black Hood to saunter around the Mighty perpetually mourned his dead Universe. Cover detail is from Fly Man #32 [July ’65]. That’s a caped Shield riding along. wife. The Web, who came along

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With the issues of Fly Man and The Mighty Crusaders cover-dated March 1966, Radio Comics dropped the Archie Adventure Series house name and reinvented themselves as Mighty Comics. They also copied Marvel’s emblematic corner box as closely as they could, in a blatant attempt to bag some of Marvel’s expanding readership. They failed miserably. The same month they launched The Mighty Crusaders, they announced a revival of their Golden Age Man of Steel, Steel Sterling, in his own title. “Now on sale!” swore the house ad. But Mighty never released the comic. It was an omen. Now, if there’s a safe bet in comics publishing, it’s a team book. The Mighty Crusaders should have been a sure thing. In fact, it had been inspired by a fan letter in 1962’s Adventures of The Jaguar #8, in which reader Paul Seydor suggested that Radio take its five best characters—The Fly, FlyGirl, Jaguar, Black Hood, and the Simon & Kirby Shield—and put them in a team book he called The Anti-Crime Squad. Seydor drew an imaginary cover which the editors reproduced with his letter. It showed the group fighting the Cyclops from Space—a giant one-eyed multi-tentacled monster, in a knockoff of the first Brave and the Bold cover introducing DC’s Justice League of America, on which the latter had wrestled with the many-armed Starro the Conqueror. The Mighty Crusaders’ line-up was similar to Seydor’s suggestion—except that they went back to the original Shield and replaced the Jaguar with the Comet. The team got off to a rocky start when their inaugural meeting was interrupted by some of the worst super—excuse me, ultra-villains of the Silver Age: the immortal Bombor, Thornaldo, Wax-Man, Electroso, and Force-Man. To describe them in detail would be a waste of ink. Besides, they were merely advance men for the Brain Emperor, a typically absurd Mighty Comics alien invader.

The high point of The Mighty Crusaders’ short existence was issue #4, and its book-length story, “Too Many Super Heroes.” The title was exactly correct. That tale made the annual JLA/JSA team-ups of the ’60s seem underpopulated. Virtually every Golden Age hero the company owned came out of oblivion for this one. That includes Mr. Justice, Captain Flag, Firefly, Bob Phantom, the Fox, and Inferno, the Fire Breather. The plot? Don’t make me laugh. These sagas weren’t plotted. To use one of Jerry Siegel’s favorite words, they were exuded. Certainly, Archie Comics jumped onto the super-hero band wagon with gusto, employing the writer-creator of the genre—Jerry Siegel, the co-originator of Superman—and hiring oft-Marvel Bullpenner Paul Reinman as artist. While integrating the so-called Radio Comics’ characters of Fly-Man and Fly-Girl with the Golden Age MLJ crew, the new Mighty Comics Group imprint opted for their characters not to be referred to as super-heroes, but rather “ultra-heroes,” nomenclature that never quite caught on.

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It was a huge, mindless slug-fest noteworthy mostly because it included the missing Jaguar. The villains were the evil Hangman and Wizard. The ending was bizarre, to say the least. The original Wizard was summoned from the 1940s to battle his older, vicious counterpart. The young Wizard is disgusted by his ’60s self and shames the old guy into surrendering. What always bothered me about that ending is this: After the Wizard returned to the ’40s, knowing that he would one day turn bad, why didn’t he prevent himself from taking the wrong road later in life? But what would you expect from a writer who hatched menaces like Inferno the Tyrant, Evilo the Tempter, and my favorite, Phantasmon the Terrible and his Alieg-Laboids, at his heroes? The latter, who fought Fly-Man, hailed from another planet and ejected lighting bolts from his nostrils, among other ridiculous talents. Mighty Comics’ ultra-villains could be divided into two distinct classes: brutes who were a cross between Attila the Hun and a modern wrestler, and impossibly bombastic alien menaces. They always talked like this: “Writhe... groan… in tribute to me: The Terrible Titan! I, who am lord and master of the underground civilization of Subterrania, will now conquer the surface world, too, through my control of the mightiest of weapons: X002—radiation weakness!” The heroes were not much better. Quoth Fly-Man in one story: “That’s it! The getaway car my insect chums gave me the tipperoo about!” With campy dialogue like that, the Mighty line was foredoomed. And so it came to pass.

Without a doubt, the first mainstream comic book to feature a comics convention within a story has to be Fly Man #32 [July ’65] (panel below), where the Mighty heroes sneak into a show. Remember that the first comics con was organized less than a year prior.

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In issue #5’s “The Sinister Agents of the Nameless One!” in which they battled a terrorist organization calling itself D.E.M.O.N, two new groups were introduced. Mr. Justice, Steel Sterling, and the Jaguar formed the Terrific Three. The Ultra Men consisted of the Fox, the Web, and Captain Flag. But they went nowhere, and were never seen again.

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Writer Jerry Siegel shoe-horned 21 of his “ultra-heroes” and three ultra-villains into his aptly titled “Too Many Super Heroes” story crowding The Mighty Crusaders #4 [Apr. 1966], an assignment that doubtless had artist Paul Reinman scouring the bound MLJ Comics archives. Here’s a handy identification feature for you.

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

[Spoiler Alert: The climax of The Mighty Crusaders #4 features the Golden Age Wizard as the “secret super-hero” guest star.]

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Mighty Comics ‘Expands’! Teasing an extension of the Mighty Comics Group

For a brief, shining moment in the Mighty Universe, it appeared as though the Archie super-hero line was going to expand beyond its two titles when a published Radio Comics’ house ad promised the upcoming birth of a great comic book, Steel Sterling. Plus, in the wake of the “Too Many Super-Heroes” epic, The Mighty Crusaders #5 [ June ’66] inferred that some of the ultra-heroes might spin-off into their own team books. There was the car-bound traveling trio consisting of the Web, Captain Flag, and the Fox, who deemed themselves “The Ultra-Men,” and the high-flying squad featuring Mr. Justice, the Jaguar, and Steel Sterling, who were dubbed “The Terrific Three.” While Steel Sterling #1 would be absorbed into Mighty Comics, the teams, alas, were never to be.

In the sixth issue, the Mighty Crusaders were tormented by a villain who called himself the Maestro. It turned out that the Maestro was an agent for an U.N.C.L.E.-like organization and was testing the group before allowing them to join T.R.I.U.M.P.H., and become subject to the Maestro’s orders. Now, a Marvel super-hero would have been insulted. Not the Mighty Crusaders. They joined up, timorously wondering what the future held for them. As it turned out, exactly nothing. The next issue was their last. And it featured a five-page “Mighty Crusaders” story starring only Black Hood and the Shield. No mention of T.R.I.U.M.P.H. The cover feature was the second part of the “Steel Sterling” story that was supposed to have run in Steel Sterling #1. Part one had appeared in Fly Man #39 the previous month. Earlier, a different version of that story had appeared in the Belmont paperback book High Camp Super-Heroes. (Belmont was Archie’s book imprint.)

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This was not the end of the Mighty line. Fly Man was retitled Mighty Comics with issue #40 (Nov. 1966), and it ran for ten more issues as a revolving door for the adventures of “The Web,” “The Fox,” “The Shield,” and whoever else Siegel and Reinman felt like playing with that month. The Black Hood seemed to get the most play—and his Golden Age nemesis, the Skull, was brought back despite the documented fact that he had been electrocuted by the state in 1941. The Hangman resurfaced as a hero again, with no explanation. The final issue, cover-dated October 1967, featured two excruciatingly undistinguished stories, a “Web” caper and a “Black Hood” exploit. And so it ended. The Mighty Comics line was a classic example of how publishers can go wrong chasing trends. The downfall of Radio Comics was that their books were slavish imitations of Mort Weisinger-era Superman comics. That was fine for the early ’60s, but by 1965, even

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Upper right is a reprint edition comprising Mighty Comics Group stories published only a year prior. Super Heroes versus Super Villains #1 [1966] featured art by Paul Reinman and also a credit box featuring the first names of executive editor Goldwater, editor/colorist Gorelick, and artist Reinman. But where’s Jerry Siegel’s name, and who’s Bob? Bob Bernstein?

the Man of Steel was falling out of favor with an increasing number of fans. While Marvel was climbing to new heights, Mighty Comics was aping the Lee/Kirby/Ditko style and claims to greatness, and sinking to depths of absurdity undreamed of by even the rankest of independent comics. I don’t know what possessed Jerry Siegel to turn the unique MLJ and Radio Comics characters into a bunch of

MLJ Heroes in the 1950s and ’60s

knockoffs and also-rans. Or what prompted editor Richard Goldwater to hire Paul Reinman to almost single-handedly draw the Mighty line. Was it because he was the only Marvel artist they could afford? Or because Reinman had drawn a “Fly” story back in the Simon & Kirby period? Most likely, it was because Reinman had been one of MLJ’s star artists in the old days.

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Mighty Marvel and The Mighty Crusaders The House of Archie riffs on the House of Ideas by Rik Offenberger & Chris Squires Things were going good for the Fly until the dawn of the “Marvel Age of Comics.” The House of Ideas began rapidly gaining sales at the expense of DC and other publishers. Adventures of the Fly was also in jeopardy. In the mid-1960s, in an attempt to revamp and bring new life to the hero, editor Richard Goldwater hired Superman cocreator Jerry Siegel to write and Marvel artist Paul Reinman (X-Men, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, The Avengers) to draw. It was the perfect pairing of the creator of the Man of Steel, the first and greatest super-hero of all time, and an artist from some of Marvel’s hottest new comics. The storytelling was “High Camp,” debuting months ahead of the Batman TV series, which made that style a national fad (and saved Batman comics from extinction, too). The main joke in the “High Camp” approach is that the heroes take themselves overly seriously in an exaggerated, complicated situation, with the reader laughing at the absurdity of it all. Siegel’s stories, unfortunately, came off as stiff rather than funny, and Reinman’s artwork looked sloppy and hurried. Fans misunderstood the

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humor and assumed Archie’s Mighty Comics Group was only a bad attempt to cash-in on unsuspecting buyers as a Marvel comic. While Adventures of the Fly, Fly Man, and the companion title, The Mighty Crusaders, were never number-one titles at Archie, sales were acceptable and returns were minimal. Archie Comics even managed to license Fly-Man Halloween costumes and a Mighty Crusaders board game featuring The Fly (see page 150 and 279). In 1967, the Fly ended his first run at Archie Comics after 31 issues as Adventures of the Fly, eight as Fly Man (#32-39), and as a lead character in all seven editions of The Mighty Crusaders. The super-hero also made several appearances in Laugh and Pep back-up solo stories. While some comics historians may judge the character based entirely on its Fly Man phase and call it a failure, or simply a Marvel “knock-off,” that is not the case. The Fly’s first published life lasted over eight years, surpassing many creations, titles, and features of the early Silver Age. [Editor’s Note: For fun, what follows are comparisons between similar aspects of the Marvel and Mighty comics groups. Whether Radio Comics swiped the House of Ideas is up to you, gentle reader!]

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The Mighty Age of Comics

Translating the Marvel ‘Heroes with Foibles’ concept

Doubtless contributing to the popularity of a revitalized Marvel Comics in the 1960s was the imprint’s approach to characterization, situations, and motivation regarding their heroes and supporting casts. The Fantastic Four squabbled and were often individually plagued with problematic romance. Spider-Man felt responsible to his aged, sickly aunt, and was renowned for flippant quips even in the most dire circumstance. Captain America felt an outsider in the modern world and was haunted by the absence of his dead sidekick… etc., etc. Thus, when the Archie Comics editorial team jumped into the superhero fray, they adopted (by a fashion) the Stan Lee method of snappy dialogue and personality conflicts between characters. Among the Mighty Comics (oft clichéd) gimmicks:

The Web, Hen-Pecked Hubby

Here’s an idea: super-hero as browbeaten spouse. With a conceit lifted straight out of the day’s inane TV situation comedies (as in plots centered on dishonesty, secrecy, and resentment), writer Jerry Siegel resurrected the Web as suburban, middle-aged husband John Raymond who begrudges his domestic duties and suffers the disdain of a stereotypically nagging mother-inlaw. He also happens to consistently lie to wife Rosie, a marital partner who justifiably worries about the aging professor getting #43 [Feb. ’67]). Despite a well-designed costume and amusing injured during his outings as costumed crime-fighter. premise, this would be her only appearance during the Mighty years. Curiously, all references to a villain in the story appear (In a neat twist, Rose Raymond decides to have her own hastily changed to “Mr. Scare.” A reasonable summation is that “little secret” and surreptitiously trains and, under the guise of the character was originally named “The Scarecrow,” but, in Pow-Girl, hopes to become the Web’s partner (Mighty Comics that same month, DC Comics revived its Golden Age bad guy of the same name (Batman #189), who later became a frequent adversary in that series.) While critic Dwight R. Decker opines in Amazing Heroes, “The Web was reduced to playing straight man to mother-in-law jokes,” and despite the stories lacking any sense of lifethreatening peril or melodrama in the Marvel sense, the tales can evoke a few chuckles. As The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide rightfully assesses the series, William Jobbie writes, “The camp super-heroics are present in full quantity, but the scenes of the super-hero returning home to be hen-pecked by his wife and having to dodge the mailman on his way out to fight crime have an acceptable slapstick quality.”

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That Other Fly-Man!

A nod to Sam Glanzman’s Golden Age super-hero

Though his first professional work was ghosting on his older brother Lew’s assignments at Centaur, one of Sam Glanzman’s earliest solo efforts was two episodes of “Fly-Man” for Spitfire Comics, a Harvey Comics release (lasting only a pair of issues). Perhaps appropriate for the digest-sized publication, Fly-Man is a 12-inch tall super-hero not afraid to dispatch his adversaries in lethal fashion. Reduced to miniature stature by his scientist father’s ray, Clip Foster is also the world’s newest heavyweight boxing champion.

service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, the artist would, of course, go on to a long and distinguished career in American comics, particularly as writer/artist of the revered “U.S.S. Stevens” series, semi-autobiographical stories of the cartoonist’s Pacific wartime experience.

Featured here are pages and a panel (signed “Sam Glanz”) from Spitfire #1 [Aug. ’41] and Sam’s cover for #2 [Oct. ’41]. After his

Sam’s Fly-Man was never to be seen again, though the hero’s brutality as crimefighter (akin to Amazing Man’s) was quite the sight!

The Shield, Unemployable Ultra-Hero

Another entertaining trope infused in the ultra-heroes oeuvre was the difficulties faced by the Shield’s alter ego, Joe Higgins, who is actually the unknown son of the Golden Age character (whose demise was to be turned to stone by the villainous Eraser). His daily quandary is to simply find a job, decent paying or otherwise.

him from monetary advancement. During a team-up with the Black Hood, the patriotic ultra-hero lucks into a $1,000-a-week movie contract, only to acquiesce at Kip Burland’s insistence that the two should not “commercialize” their careers and Black Hood, speaking for his partner without consultation, boldly tells the film producer to donate their pay to charity (despite the Shield hoping otherwise).

Among the Shield’s travails is his endless quest for gainful work, which results in being fired on his first day as a window-washer and being let go from a gig as railroad construction worker, as well as threats of dismissal as dishwasher in a diner called “The Greasy Spoon.” Though, to be frank, it’s Higgins’ pride that mostly keeps

Called the “world’s most unsuccessful job-hunter,” Higgins grumbles in Mighty Comics #41 [Dec. ’66], “It just doesn’t seem right that I, who am secretly the mighty Shield, must scratch so desperately for a living! Are the fates jealous and is this their dirty underhanded way of getting back at me? The FBI laughed in my face when I applied

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for a job! The CIA thought I was a nut who’d seen too many James Bond movies! My pride prevents me from letting the other Mighty Crusaders know how badly I need employment! I’m so upset I could just run amok and bust jaws! I’ll sublimate the impulse by changing to the Shield and wipe up the scene with evildoers!” The Shield stories also suggest the notion that the bachelor character should have a continuing love interest. Initially, Higgins briefly expresses a romantic interest in Fly-Girl, and then there’s the lifelong crush of real estate heiress Tina Winslow who vows, straight to the hero’s face, to one day marry the super-hero (which would solve the character’s financial woes if not for his asinine insistence that one should marry for love… what a dope!). Writer Siegel finally introduces Nancy Zenith, the “cute, bright employment agency owner who does her adoring best for Joe, while comparing him unfavorably with the Shield.” The Zenith Employment Agency does give the series a base of operations, but Nancy’s respect for the hero and not the man behind the mask is mildly reminiscent of the relationship of Siegel’s greatest creation and Lois Lane. Still, it does add spice…

Crazy Like the Fox

The characterization of the Fox is a rather bizarre affair. His adventure, “The Gasser Attacks” (Mighty Comics #49 [Aug. ’67]), implores the reader to “Learn, now, the perplexity, the complexity, the almost insuperable obstacles that loom between this awesome figure of justice… and the love, the happiness his bold, brave, baffled heart yearns vainly for…!” We find “celebrated go-go dancer” Delilah pleading with “hip leader of the swinging set” Paul Patton to get married, but the Daily Globe photographer is callous, dismissive, and rude. Yet, secretly, he admits, “I love her more than I can bear!”

her swinging hips. Every night he has sent to her table a bottle of perfume, red rose, and note that begs Delilah for a date. Ever hot for Patton, she thinks the super-hero ain’t nothing but a drag, man. Adding to the creepy behavior is his admission that the perfume can be detected by his Fox-Car’s “fragrance-tracker,” proving useful when she is kidnapped by ne’er-do-wells, but it begs the question whether the Fox is less hero than predatory stalker… Just sayin’.

Bickering Battlers

But Patton has the lunatic notion that Delilah must love him in the guise of the Fox so that he doesn’t have to sacrifice his crime-fighting career. (His unending love apparently ends when it comes to giving up the side-job, eh?) So, dressed in his super-hero duds, every night Patton pines away at the “frantic majesty [of ] the girl I love!” while sitting at a lonely table in the discotheque with a love-sick expression as he stares at

Mostly, what the Mighty Comics Group swiped from the Marvel Comics Group, aside from the cover imprint logo and jocularity in the credits, is its attempt to have the story dialogue resemble reallife conversation with Mighty’s seemingly endless verbal jousting between the characters. The thing is, much of it comes across as snide and rather mean-spirited, devoid of any discernible, distinct personality. Frankly, amidst all the rousing fun, they kinda often come off sounding like jerks.

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The Invasion of the High Camp Super-Heroes! Sokk! Zip! The Ultra-Heroes hit the book racks… by Paul Castiglia

neither publishers’ comics were necessarily consciously campy.

The year was 1966. When Adam West donned the cape and cowl twice a week on network TV, Batmania took flight for a year or three… and there was no looking back! Suddenly, super-heroes were synonymous with pop art and campy humor. TV brought on Mr. Terrific and Captain Nice, Modesty Blaise, and Rat Pfink a(nd) Boo Boo cavorted across cinema screens, animated super-hero spoofs like The Mighty Heroes and The Super Six appeared, and super-heroes in comic books… well, you would think they followed suit, but most of them remained unchanged. At least at the “big two,” Marvel and DC Comics.

That void didn’t remain unfilled for long. Dell Comics contributed super-hero versions of Dracula(!) and Frankenstein(!) and, by 1967, topped those with a title simply called Super Heroes— probably to divert attention from the fact that the title heroes were actually called “The Fab 4” in the interior pages. No sense incurring the wrath of either the musical mop-tops’ lawyers nor the legal eagles defending Marvel’s first family of heroes residing at the Baxter building.

Marvel was in their renaissance of angst-ridden (and sometimes anti-) heroes with personal problems reflecting real-life. DC was enjoying their Silver Age resurgence of rebooted heroes, including the Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom, and Hawkman. Yet, despite some wise-cracking titans and comic relief sidekicks at Marvel, and a few super-powered gorillas and enlarged noggins permeating the DC universe,

The realization among baby boomers that cornball crimefighters were fun to mock became all the rage when, months prior to the campy Batman TV show, the atrocious 1943 Columbia serial Batman was shown to hip audiences. The binge screening ads trumpeted, “Come to jeer—stay to cheer… and vice versa!” By 1966, camp was king.

Not to be outdone, Archie Comics joined the fray, first by tackling their Silver Age titles. The Fly, which up until then had been mostly straightforward, got a camp injection and a name change, to Fly Man. The Jaguar chugged along at a consistent pace, though it always unintentionally bordered on camp from the start. It was when Archie noticed the success DC and Marvel had with their respective super-groups, the Justice League and the Avengers that they resurrected their stable of Golden Age super-heroes, and both teamed them up and pitted them against each other.

Holy Susan Sontag! It’s a note or two on ‘Camp’ In the Fall 1964 edition of the cultural and political journal Partisan Review, American intellectual Susan Sontag first gained wide notice with her groundbreaking essay, “Notes on ‘Camp,’” examining what was little discussed up to that time. The impact of Sontag’s piece was downright seismic, giving the intelligentsia permission (if you will) to simultaneously embrace and revile camp artifacts. Camp is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as, “An affectation or appreciation of manners and tastes commonly thought to be outlandish, vulgar, or banal.” Sontag writes, “Indeed 146

the essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.” The writer confesses, “I am strongly drawn to Camp, and almost as strongly offended by it,” and, in her extended litany, Sontag lists “the old Flash Gordon comics” as a random example. Obviously the Mighty Comics line was an attempt to capitalize on camp’s popularity, but Sontag’s careermaking essay nails why Archie Comics failed in the effort (beyond the tone-deaf scripting). “One must distinguish between naïve and deliberate Camp,” she writes. “Pure camp is always naïve. Camp which knows itself to be Camp… is usually less satisfying.” True that. The MLJ Companion

The words on the cover broadcast their intentions loud and clear.

By the mid ’60s, mass market paperbacks had taken a foothold, as well. Popular novels, after successful first runs as hardcover books, were brought back to life in the inexpensively bound softcover format. Easy and cheap to churn out, these books populated racks at every convenience store, highway rest stop, bus depot, and airport, ripe for the picking by any bored traveler seeking a respite from the rigors of their journey.

“MARVEL AT THEIR STUPOR DEEDS!” just going straight for the House of Ideas, no diagonal required!

Novels weren’t the only success in that format. Just about every popular newspaper comic strip or single panel cartoon brought in extra coin for its syndicate when reprinted in mass market paperback form. With black-&-white interiors, publishers could keep their printing costs down and pass on the savings to the consumer, allowing for bigger volume sales. Peanuts, B.C., Hagar, and many others were collected in softcover editions, and snatched up by readers of all ages, particularly adults. This led to comic books also getting the paperback treatment, from MAD magazine to Spider-Man to… you guessed it, the Mighty Comics heroes! Belmont Books was the publisher behind High Camp Super Heroes… and just so happened to be a division of Archie Comics (though that fact was not widely known at the time). Since 1961, Belmont primarily published horror and sciencefiction novels, including reprints of H.P. Lovecraft tales, anthologies branded under the banners of Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone, respectively, and adventures featuring the classic pulp character, the Shadow. Unlike the publisher’s secret identity, Belmont made no secret that the overnight Bat-craze prompted the rush to bring the Mighty Comics characters to paperbacks.

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“DIG THEIR CRAZY COSTUMES”—stacked so that when the “D” in “DIG” and the “C” in “CRAZY” were read on a diagonal, it spelled out “DC”!

The cover also promised “STUPOR DEEDS,” with “super-scripting” by Superman’s co-creator, Jerry Siegel. Also promised by the over-powering cover text: “Super-starring STEEL STERLING, FLY MAN, THE SHIELD and the hen-pecked WEB!” Just in case you weren’t sure about the “super” part. Interesting too here was the emphasis on the Web’s harried domestic life, further underscoring the camp aspect.

The High Camp Heroes

While the Avengers and Justice League had their share of squabbles, Archie’s heroes, dubbed the Mighty Crusaders, were practically all-squabble—when they weren’t engaged in some of the most absurd action ever (flying robot horse, anyone?)!

The introduction by Siegel read thusly: A couple dozen years ago, if you’d have been caught dead or alive with a super hero comic book, you might’ve been laughed at, spat upon, or merely ostracized. (UGH!) Today, you can proudly carry a super hero comical book and be lauded, applauded and maybe even carried on the shoulders of cheering multitudes! (GASP!) The reason for this startling presto-changeo is that High Camp devotees have gone ape over long underwear-attired villain clobberers like the firm-jawed Steel Sterling, the firmlipped Black Hood, the firm-eyed Shield and the occasionally queasy Web! Nostalgia lovers who become dewy-eyed over contemplation of the Golden Age of Comics of the 30’s and 40’s will agree the masterful gems starring the aforementioned Mighty Ones presented within these pages pack plenty of SOKK, BAM and POWW! If television is making you yawn these days, if reading masses of type on a printed page gives you a migraine headache, if cinema spy capers are beginning to lose their

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zing for you, then immerse yourself in HIGH CAMP SUPER HEROES. Could a High Camper, or even a Low Camper ask for more?

Unintentionally, the front cover features a faux pas that adds additional charm to the proceedings by featuring Turan from the Fly World instead of the intended Fly-Man. Then, the back cover throws out a real zinger. It actually casts a critical eye on the book’s contents in a self-deprecating act of metaself-awareness uncommon for its time: Some will say this book is so bad it’s GREAT; Others will say Guttenberg would’ve smashed the print press, had he but known! Sensational non-news!

It was an interesting twist, to say the least, on the hyperbolic prose of Stan “the Man” Lee. And it predated the satirical missiles hurled at the Mighty Comics heroes in Kitchen Sink Press’s World’s Worst Comics Awards mini-series by 26 years (for those who missed it, the epic Mighty Crusaders tale, “Too Many Super Heroes” landed the award for worst comics story of all-time).

a stat house to get photostatted, then cut up the panels to fit about two per page. The biggest job was doing the splash panels and having to get the copy in at the same time. My only regret was putting the page numbers on it—they looked awful. I put each page number in a circle which made it look it even worse.” “Product was a lot more involved then than it is now,” Gorelick added. High Camp Super-Heroes Published by Belmont Books, New York, N.Y. Apr. 1966 Original Cover Price: 50¢ Written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel Drawn by Paul Reinman (Incredible Hulk, X-Men) Inked by Paul Reinman and Frank Giacoia Softcover, 4" x 7" b-&-w 160 pages Reprints: Fly Man #36 [Mar. 1966] Fly Man #37 [May 1966] First appearance of stories subsequently reprinted in: Fly Man #39 [Sept. 1966] The Mighty Crusaders #7 [Oct. 1966]

“Vic Torr,” colorist of many of the Mighty Crusaders issues was tasked with compiling this black-&-white compendium… and given that he was also an editor at Archie better known as Victor Gorelick, he was a natural. Still, the task was not without its challenges. As Gorelick related, “I worked on it a little over two weeks including weekends to get it done. I had to take the artwork to The back cover of High Camp Super Heroes features copy that would likely make even hyperbolic Stan "The Man" Lee blush, more corny and self deprecating as likely ever to be found gracing a paperback book jacket. Note, as evidenced by the cover's bottom blurb, this volume was intended to be the first of a series of "Belmont High Camp Originals" (also see title page, far right). The following year Tower Books (which would merge with Belmont in ’71) released Dynamo, Man of High Camp, featuring reprints of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent's exploits.

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Jerry Siegel’s Second Act How far the mighty have fallen: A cautionary tale by Jon B. Cooke As wacky, weird, and fun as the Mighty Comics stories are, when examining the overall career and tribulations of the writer of those mid-’60s exploits, there is more than a tinge of tragedy about Jerome Siegel (credited as “Jerry Ess” in the Mighty stories). Of course, many folks know that, along with artist Joe Shuster, Siegel was the originator of the entire super-hero genre with the first appearance of their joint creation, Superman, which debuted back in the Spring of 1938. Infamously, the team sold their character for a mere $130 to DC Comics, which ultimately prompted long court battles between the Man of Steel creators and the monolithic comics publisher. In 1947, due to the litigation, Siegel and his partner became persona non grata at the outfit they helped to build, and other ventures, whether as a team or as individuals, proved unsuccessful. By 1959, demoralized, desperate, and hat in hand, the writer returned to DC, where he suffered under the sadistic editorialship of Mort Weisinger as a writer of Superman tales. During the 1960s, Siegel would write for other outfits, including Marvel and Charlton Comics, though his biggest impact was on the Mighty Comics line. His corny storytelling was not among fandom’s most lauded, as Dwight R. Decker writes in Amazing Heroes #50 [ July 1, 1984]: There’s a story to the effect that the comic strip Nancy is the way it is because the syndicate told the artist Ernie Bushmiller, to “Dumb it up, Ernie!” I can’t escape the suspicion that when he was given the assignment to write the “Mighty” heroes for Archie, Jerry Siegel was told something At top is Jerry Siegel (left) and Joe Shuster. Middle is Joe Shuster’s iconic Superman pose. At right is The Mighty Crusaders #7 [Oct. ’66]. Art by Paul Reinman.

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similar. “Dumb it up, Jerry!” After all, wasn’t “camp”… “in”? Wasn’t the usual definition of “camp” something that was so bad, it was good? All right, if the public wants comic books that are so bad they’re good, we’ll make ours twice as bad! Rather like the would-be lover who, assured that women are attracted to a man wearing an eyepatch, decides that wearing eyepatches over both eyes would double his chances.

Simultaneous to his work for Archie Comic Publications, Siegel was preparing to join Shuster in another attempt to reclaim ownership of the Last Son of Krypton, and all DC work was suddenly made unavailable once the publisher learned of their litiginous plans. It’s tempting to surmise that the Mighty Comics’ appellation “ultraheroes” was the scribe’s hopeful attempt to offer the field an alternative to the word “super” (as its ubiquity in the industry must have chaffed the writer to no end). Also curious is Siegel’s brazen use of “The Man of Steel” as a synonomous description for the resurrected MLJ character Steel Sterling, likely a petulant jab at his legal adversary. With the end of the Mighty Comics Group, Siegel moved on to Gold Key to script The Owl, just about his last superhero assignment. He would also briefly contribute to black-&-white horror titles and, by the ’70s, British and Italian comics. The indignities suffered by the creators of Superman finally made headlines by the latter 1970s, bolstered by the impending release of the movie adaptation. With the aid of artists Neal Adams and Jerry Robinson, Siegel and Shuster would finally come to terms with DC Comics, which thereafter promised that the pair’s credit line would appear in all Superman comics and that the men would each receive $20,000 a year for the remainder of their lives.

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Super-Heroics: The Game of Crimefighting The sport of sttacking the Ultra-Foe’s fortress by Paul Castiglia Transogram was a toy and game company that had some of its biggest successes in the 1960s. Among its subsidiaries were Anchor Toy Corporation, Playwood Plastics Company, Toy Research Institute, Inc., Toy Scouts of America, Transco Adult Games, and Transogram Midwest, Inc. Toys, games, playroom furniture, coloring and paint-by-number sets, craft kits, and children’s sporting goods were manufactured under the brand name Transogram.

Publications. The colorful, displayable game board featured an image of the heroes depicted as if they were all flying in a circle. The player was meant to move the game pieces around the board and the heroes served as “spaces.” Included were game cards, dice and colored cardboard markers which were all used for game play. The superheroes featured in the set included Fly-Man, Fly-Girl, The Shield, The Black Hood, Captain Flag, The Fox, The Web, Mr. Justice, The Jaguar, and Steel Sterling.

Transogram was the creator of many wellknown toys. In the 1930s it expanded into the board game business with such popular releases as Big Business, Game of India and Green Ghost. Its most famous game, Tiddly Winks, was introduced in 1938.

The box art misidentified some of the heroes. The Black Hood became merely “The Hood.” Captain Flag suddenly found an extra “G” at the end of his name. Mr. Justice gained some inexplicable colleagues in the “formal designation” department as The Fox became “Mr. Fox,” Steel Sterling was “Mr. Steel,” and perhaps the swingiest of all was the Jaguar, now formally known as “Mr. Jag!”

Transogram was no stranger to making board games based on popular licensed characters from newspaper comic strips, animated cartoons and comic books. Among their many offerings were games based on Popeye, Prince Valiant, Bullwinkle, Buck Rogers, The Flintstones, Superman, The Jetsons, Mighty Mouse, Yogi Bear and Jonny Quest. In 1966 Transogram produced the Mighty Comics Super Heroes Game, featuring the heroes of Archie Comic

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There were two notable oddities regarding this set:

The collectible Mighty Comics Super Heroes Game included this set of instructions on how to play the board game—remember: the youngest player goes first! This item was produced in 1966 by the toy company Transogram and today it fetches, in good condition, between $50–$100.

There may have been some “mighty heroic” confusion for parents seeking out gifts for their children, as Transogram also licensed the characters from Terrytoons’ animated superhero spoof, The Mighty Heroes in 1966!

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The Mighty Super-Heroes Board Game

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The Shadow’s Forgotten Era at Archie Comics Who knows… why he was made into a super-hero? by Paul Castiglia

That’s right, he throws his voice! To change into his “secret” I.D., he does nothing more than put on glasses and remove his cape! Amazingly, this is all it takes to project the mystery man described as “America’s top secret agent” in the “U.S. Secret Service”.

[Editor’s Note: This article appeared in different form in Comic Book Marketplace #101.] The Shadow. The mere mention of his name evokes many things: The classic radio show whose catchphrase—“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men… the Shadow knows!”—remains firmly ingrained in the American consciousness; the original magazine pulps, enthralling millions of readers; the merchandising spawned by the radio series; the movie serials and short features of the 1940s; and the various comic book adaptations—from the original Street & Smith editions to the Marvel, Dark Horse, and, of course, the celebrated Michael Kaluta-illustrated DC issues—not to mention his encounters with Batman! Like all great literary figures, however, the Shadow has a littleknown skeleton in his closet: From August 1964 until September 1965, his course was charted by the good folks at—are you ready?— Archie Comics!

Also on hand are secretary Margo Lane and chauffeur Shrevy. The plot involves the classic Shadow villain, evil Shiwan Khan, trying to steal plans for a new, experimental “cold war” theme. Despite the trite story, we are treated to a James Bond-esque scene in which Cranston, trapped in his own limo, gleefully informs his would-be-assassin that his Rolls is equipped with a “dual set of controls,” enabling him to control the car from the back seat and to knock out the driver with an electrical charge.

In the back-up story, “The Eyes of the Tiger,” the Shadow When you first pick up the Archie Comics’ version of The Shadow tackles #1 (Aug. 1964), the cover deceives you into thinking that this will some common thugs be just like the classic Street & Smith Shadow comics of the Golden attempting an insurance Age. The slouch hat, the dark cloak, and his distinctive nose are scam by holding a penclearly in view. Then you turn to the first page. In a story entitled light under his face so “The Shadow vs. the RXG Spymaster,” we see Lamont Cranston as that he appears ghost-like. the Shadow: no hat, a bright blue cloak, and blonde hair astonishing The crooks think he is a us all right off the bat with the awesome power of…ventriloquism! tiger(!), and the Shadow takes advantage of their fear to knock them out. The issue is written by Bob Bernstein with art by John Rosenberger.

The only time Lamont Cranston appeared in the Archie Comics’ adaptation of the great pulp/radio crime-fighter in his classic getup [as shown above on a 1948 pulp magazine] was on the cover of The Shadow #1 [Aug. ’64, shown on next page]. Otherwise, as seen on cover detail at right, he was mostly dressed as a super-hero.

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As if the incongruities of the Archie version weren’t

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“Shiwan Khan’s Murderous Master Plan” opens with Lamont and Shrevy on their way to Red China via jet, almost being blown out of the sky by a “mushroom cloud that accompanies an atom bomb explosion.” Once in Red China, the Shadow uses “mass hypnosis” on some soldiers, mesmerizing them into believing they are trapped behind bars. This constant use of hypnosis actually makes things less dramatic, like Superman’s total invincibility in the old days. In fact, when captured by a femme fatale spy, he once more resorts to hypnosis to have her turn on her boss, Shiwan Khan. Once again, the script is by Bob Bernstein with art by John Rosenberger. The back-up finds the legendary Paul Reinman rendering a Bernstein script, “Margo Lane’s Honeymoon.” Wishing Lamont would show some interest in her, Margo slumbers and dreams of their honeymoon, one spent avoiding assassins. Like all the “teaser” Superman comics through the years where Supes almost bought the farm (many of which were also dream sequences), this issue should have the same collectability. The real fun, however, starts in The Shadow #3 (Nov. 1964), featuring the super-hero Shadow of the previous issue’s cover. This all Bernstein-Reinman issue features “Shiwan Khan’s House of Horrors,” a whirlwind adventure of the most implausible kind. Lamont, now sporting jet-black hair, is on the trail of Khan (who else?) and his men, who have kidnapped Margo. Unfortunately, Khan has brainwashed Shrevy to drive off the “uncompleted Narrows bridge” (that’s right, New Yorkers, it wasn’t always there!). As they plummet, the Shadow re-hypnotizes Shrevy by staring into the rearview mirror, and then gets them out of the water. In one of the most befuddling sequences ever, the Shadow goes undercover in Chinatown by donning a large Mardi Gras-like mask worn over his own mask, which he’s already wearing—never mind the fact that he’s still wearing his costume! This story catapults the Shadow all over the map, from Chinatown to the World’s Fair, recalling classic ’50s Batman (as paid homage to in the 1993 Mask of the Phantasm animated movie). Khan pulls out all the stops in this story—sharks, lions, tanks, etc. As so eloquently put by the observant Shadow, “Great Guns—this was all a macabre plot to trap me!” Don’t leave now. His dialogue gets better: “Six sharks in the pool! Six bullets in my automatic! I’d better not miss!”

page strips of the Simon and Kirby character The Fly, which run to issue #7. None of the previous issues could have prepared readers for the villain of The Shadow #4 ( January 1965): “The Diabolical Dr. Demon,” Hitler’s “evil scientist,” has come out of hiding to “finish Der Fuhrer’s work.” Only two men can keep him from ruling the world—our hero, of course, and Dr. Demon’s only competitor, the irrepressible Shiwan Khan (does this guy never learn?).

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evident in issue #1, the cover to The Shadow #2 (September 1964) leaves no doubt. No, you’re not seeing things: Hurtling across the cover is the Shadow, decked out in a… (gulp)… super-hero costume! It was only a sign of things to come, for the stories inside portray him as he appeared in issue #1.

In this Bernstein and Reinman outing, just to make sure we’re aware of who the bad guy is, we are told that “If Hitler had listened to Dr. Demon, Germany might have won the war!” Jeepers! Thank goodness for Schickelgruber’s momentary deafness. There is an unnerving sequence where the Doc traps both the Shadow and Khan in a furnace, but thankfully the Doc jumps to his own death.

Seemingly in keeping with the theme of intolerance, the “Human Bomb” title character of the back-up story looks like a KKK grand master with dynamite strapped to his white cloak. Margo and Shrevy (who really should know better) “The Princess of Death” tries to prove Lamont and the read Lamont’s mail and learn of threats from a mad bomber. Shadow are one and the same in a back-up tale which we’ve read They plan to stop him. Lamont hears their scheme over the before (and will no doubt again). This issue also begins oneintercom. When the mad bomber arrives, he hypnotizes them

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into thinking that they acted alone in saving him, even though he used his own Shadow powers. From the silliest villain names file, The Shadow #5 (March 1965) brings us “The Menace of Radiation Rogue,” as well as the scripting talents of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel. A Shiwan Khan dupe who Reinman renders in a red radiation suit, he looks like he’s ready to date Ma Hunkel, the original DC Comics Red Tornado. Once a scientist whose experiments went awry and left him doused in radiation, he concocts a serum that will keep him alive for the next few days. He has the power to transfer the deadly radiation to others. At one point, he even manages to get a hold of the Shadow, spouting this classic dialogue while contaminating him: “Now you know why I’m called Radiation Rogue! You probably thought it was a vainglorious, meaningless name, but now you know better, eh?” The amazingly anti-climactic ending has the Shadow brainwash (yawn) Radiation Rogue into turning on Shiwan Khan.

England coast to the Cranston Museum of Art to Terror Island. As if two super-villains weren’t enough, one of Khan’s henchmen disguises himself as the Shadow and tries to kill him. He retreats when he realizes that without the Shadow, Khan would no longer need his services and would probably execute him. The Shadow #7 ( Jul 1965) will live in infamy as the issue in which the Archie editors outdid themselves. It wasn’t enough that they stuck the classic mystery man in a super-hero suit. In this issue, he acquires a “belt buckle power beam” and a (I’m not making this up!) “multi-action Shadow gun,” enabling him to shoot “weakness gas” and electric blasts!

This story is notable for such classic Khan dialogue as his description of Attila, “A handsome, hard faced Asiatic who fights like a demon,” as well as “I am a skilled practitioner in the black art of skullduggery, bar none!”

“The Shadow Battles The Brute,” however, is a classic even without these new gadgets. Shiwan Khan encourages his stooges to duke it out in an all-encompassing slugfest. The last guy standing gets to be zapped with a growth ray. The newly huge thug, a bald guy the size of Marvel’s Kingpin and wearing Plastic Man’s red, laced shirt and goggles, is sent out to pillage the world. The Shadow tries to hypnotize him, but can’t penetrate the goggles. This leads to a battle on the estate of Cyrus Galloway; rich explorer, whose mementos, including live crocodiles, proliferate his property. The Shadow lures the Brute into an elephant trap, from which he soon escapes. The Shadow then breaks the Brute’s goggles with a supersonic note from a special whistle, hoping now to hypnotize him. However, he’s also wearing “shatter proof contact lenses that screen out hypnotism.” Eventually Khan doublecrosses the Brute by not giving him his cut of the action. The Brute turns good and saves Margo by sacrificing himself, jumping in her place as a stone gargoyle is about to crush her.

It’s another multi-locales tale, from the waters of the New

This roller-coaster of a comic is augmented by great bad dialogue

The Siegel and Reinman creative team would remain on board until the final issue. “The Incredible Alliance of Shiwan Khan and Attila the Hunter,” from The Shadow #6 (May 1965), finds Khan teaming up with another villain of infamous descent—just as Shiwan is related to Ghengis Khan, so, too is Attila related to his namesake (I kept waiting for Chucky Manson Jr. to show up).

Somewhat perplexing is the question: Once Archie’s editorial department decided to make the Shadow into a super-hero, and his adventures ran concurrent with the Mighty Heroes line-up, and were helmed by the same creative team—why wasn’t there a crossover of the characters? Alas, Lamont Cranston was left on his own, and in his penultimate issue, #7 [July ’65], he was given a bunch of amazing new weapons (top). The crime-fighter also attended the New York World’s Fair, as seen in the panel above from #3 [Nov. ’64].

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from the Shadow and the Brute: “There’s nothing I Khan… I mean can… do to prevent it!” says the Shadow at one point, while the Brute pontificates, “Of course I have a terrible temper, smash things, rob and steal and am as treacherous as an eel! Outside of that, I am quite likeable! And handsome, too… see?”

The Shadow prevails in this by-the-numbers entry, however; his method of defeating Elasto is quite ingenious: He tricks him into stretching into the ionosphere, where the extreme lack of oxygen makes him black out.

In the end, the Shadow psyches out the rich dude—taunting that A caption sums it all up best: “Remember that in the Archie Series he can’t go through with killing him. Instead of whisking him off to justice, the Shadow implores him to “see a psychiatrist!” of slam-bang, surprise-a-second comics, anything can happen, and usually does!” This is truly an amazing issue! The series also included text stories which actually were more faithful to the character. The Archie version of the Shadow is quite “The Game of Death” in The Shadow #8 (Sept. 1965) finishes an enigma in the history of comics. Yet, for many reasons, I feel it is off the series with a standard one-hero-versus-all-his-villains story. quite collectable. A rich guy employs various villains to kill the Shadow, and the one who succeeds will be given the honor of unmasking him. Certainly, it is the first-time Archie licensed a property from an outside source (and one with an established track record to boot); They include Attila the Hunter, the insidious Elasto (a new it is definitely a product of its times, with all the cold war paranoia. villain who—you’ll never guess—stretches); the “diabolical” It features some of the hokiest and most rapid-fire dialogue since Dimiensionoid (an alien who can transform himself into “any Dragnet, the involvement of Siegel and Reinman, and of course it number of geometrical Monsters,” and whose only motivation is takes an established character and turns his world upside-down. that he has to kill the Shadow as part of his initiation into a “cabal of Ultra-villains” on his planet); and two baddies who perished in previous issues, Dr. Demon and Radiation Rogue. No reasons are You never know what lunacy lurks in the back issue boxes. given for their resurrections. While the Shadow never did join in the crime-fighting capers of the Mighty Crusaders, his title did feature a series of one-pagers, all showcasing the Fly (or, technically in the latter episodes, the Fly-Man), starting with The Shadow #3 [Nov. ’64]. Below right page from #7 [July ’65], the final episode, even has the ultra-heroes breaking the fourth wall to directly address the readers. All art by Paul Reinman with script presumably by Jerry Siegel—the same creative team who drew the majority of the Shadow’s Radio Comics exploits.

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The Secret Life of Mr. Archibald Andrews That year Riverdale went mad for super-heroes by Jon B. Cooke There must be something tangible to the notion that the sudden explosion of super-hero titles in the mid-1960s had less to do with the increasing circulation figures of Marvel Comics and more with the licensing of said colorful characters to the far more lucrative realms of merchandising and television production. The Licensing Corporation of America, along with Independent News Distributors, a sister company to National Periodical Publications (which we

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know as DC Comics), was founded in 1960 by Jay Emmett and Allan Stone, and it sold licenses to manufacturers and other firms for permission to use the names and likenesses of creative properties. By the early to mid-’60s, the partners (described by True magazine, in Dec. ’66, as “sitting in one of the coziest catbird seats in merchandising history”) made a killing by licensing the secret agent with a license to kill, James Bond 007. Emmett, being the nephew of DC co-owner Jack Liebowitz, also had access to the DC characters, and, by 1966, the partners were doing slam-bam-pow business with the success of the Batman TV series.

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(Whether the intention was, in fact, for the publisher to pitch Saturday morning cartoon shows starring spandex-clad versions of the iconic characters to TV executives is not known. But keep in mind that the company was eager to see Andrews and company on the small screen, coming close in 1964 when an Archie live-action situation comedy was produced (though the pilot went unsold). And, while this was after the Mighty years, The Archie Show—the cartoon series that spawned the hit music single “Sugar, Sugar”—launched in 1968, the first of numerous animated programs featuring the gang.) As befitting the bellwether character of the entire comics outfit, Archie Andrews was the first Riverdale youth to put on a long underwear costume, albeit at first when the lad was daydreaming about being a champion. And so it was, in the pages of Life with Archie #42 [Oct. ’65] : lo’ there arose the defender of Riverdale, teenage super-hero Pureheart the Powerful! The origin of the character, who soon was renamed Captain Pureheart, would arrive a few months hence, in Life with Archie #46 [Feb. ’66], where we learn Archie Andrews is able to utilize his inner PH (Pure Heart) Factor and miraculously transform into the super-hero. His abilities? Well, frankly, any power he desires! In the same month as Purehert the Powerful’s debut, Betty Cooper makes the expanding super-heroic scene as Super Teen, in Betty and Veronica #118. By a mere twist of her ponytail, Archie’s girlnext-door gains the power of flight and super-strength. It takes Forsythe Pendleton Jones III a whole year to become Captain Hero, simultaneously appearing in Jughead as Captain Hero #1 and Archie Giant Series #142: Archie’s Super Hero Special [both Oct. ’66]. Archie’s pal retains the capacity to shape-shift and, like Purheart, have any power desired.

Even Little Archie got into the super-hero fun and was transformed into (you guessed it) Little Pureheart in the pages of Little Archie #40 [Fall ’66]. His power apparently is omnipotence, as with his teen counterpart. Life with Archie #50 [ June ’66] joined up Pureheart, Super Teen, and Captain Hero to become the “Pureheart Universe” superteam, the United Three. And, of course, Reggie Mantle, Archie’s lifelong nemisis, gets his shot as super-villain Evilheart, first in Life with Archie #48 [Apr. ’66].

The Alter Ego of Mr. Archibald Andrews

Of course, money always draws attention and the phenomenal profits made by LCA during those days of Batmania inspired other comics outfits of the day to either dust off their Golden Age masked men and costumed cuties, or start brainstorming new crime-fighting characters for ripe exploitation. As super-folk were beginning their invasion of the animated television scene, it was likely a no-brainer for the head honchos at Archie Comics to consider the (admittingly wonky) idea of suiting up the Riverdale gang as a squadron of superheroes, all rendered in the immutable Archie style.

But teen humor supershenanigans did extend outside the Riverdale town limits, as Archie’s Madhouse (a tame MAD knock-off ) had more than its fair share of super-hero spoofs, featuring a silly do-gooder called

Previous page features, at top, a vignette of Archie as Capt. Pureheart #5 [Aug. ’67]. Below is a bona fide cameo by the Mighty Crusaders in the Captain Sprocket story in Archie’s Madhouse #43 [Oct. ’65], with Joe Edwards’ art. A huge assortment of satirical super-hero characters populated Archie’s Madhouse during the mid-’60s, usually one-offs, though Sprocket (who originated as a science-fiction spoof) was a regular. Above is cover detail from #50 [Oct. ’66]. Art by Bill Vigoda and Mario Acquaviva.

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Captain Sprocket (a goofball who started out in 1963 as a sciencefiction character) and a ditsy teen who went by the moniker of Superchick. (There were also many other costumed cavorters, too numerous to name, who appeared in the title between 1966–67.) Saving the best for last, the real Archie super-heroes, the Mighty Crusaders, actually made a cameo in a Captain Sprocket story. In Archie’s Madhouse #43 [Oct. ’65], albeit for a mere two pages,

their appearance merely motivates the Madhouse star to form his own team of super-powered snooks, whom he suggests be named “Captain Sprocket and the Terrific Three.” (Interesingly—or so to those weird enough to care—the story, “The Dream Team Scheme,” includes a fellow called “Roller Surfboard Man,” technically the first surfing super-hero, predating the Silver Surfer debut in Fantastic Four #48 [Mar. ’66]. Ain’t that just fascinating?)

This spread features a plethora of comic book mash-ups featuring teen-humor characters cast as super-heroes. Each of the main Riverdale pals and gals (except for one notable exception) had their own action-packed role: Archie was Pureheart the Powerful (soon changed to Captain Pureheart); Jughead was Captain Hero; Betty was Superteen; and Reggie played the villainous nemesis of Pureheart named (what else?) Evilheart; and even Little Archie joined the hybrid genre, as Little Pureheart. Veronica Lodge, too cool apparently, was conspicuously absent. Archie, Jughead, and Betty even teamed up as the United Three. Above are panels from the Superchick story in Archie’s Madhouse #50 [Oct. ’66].

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INTERLUDE Where Are the Heroes?

The 1970s bring change and retrenchment to Archie

by Jon B. Cooke Upon completing “MLJ Looks for a Way,” his two-part essay on the super-hero titles of Archie Comic Publications (Amazing Heroes #50–51), writer Dwight R. Decker submitted a follow-up letter, in AH #59 [Nov. 15 ’84], which shared fascinating conjecture he received from a fellow comics historian. Decker writes: As a result of the first part… Mark Evanier (DNAgents, et al.) called me the other night. During the course of the conversation, he passed along a theory that explains as well as anything I’ve ever heard why Archie’s super-hero comic books were the way they were during the ’60s. For the first time since I took an interest in the things way back when, I feel like I understand what was going on. Basically, the name of the game was merchandising. In particular, in those days of the Batman TV show, that meant getting characters on the tube. Selling comic books is nice, but the big money lay in television exposure. Now Archie’s “Mighty Comics Group” begins to make sense: not as a real line of comic books, but as the appearance of one. With such key points as scripting by the man who created Superman and some two dozen superhero characters “just like Batman,” TV producers wouldn’t have known the difference. Presumably they would have confused “Mighty” with Marvel. The actual content of the books

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was virtually irrelevant, whether good, bad or indifferent, and even sales figures were unimportant: the comic books existed as brochures aimed at people who knew very little about the comic-book industry. Then, too, the comics also established Archie’s claims to the characters and trademarks. The last thing on anyone’s mind was apparently whether they were comic books and if the buyers enjoyed them.

Yet, disappointed or not with their MLJ cast of characters, the publisher found no reason to keep them in mothballs if interested parties were willing to pay any licensing fees. In the early ’70s, The Buyer’s Guide to Comics Fandom publisher Alan Light received permission to publish black-&-white reprints of Pep Comics #1 and #17 for his Flashback series. And, in July of 1984, Dwight Decker wrote that aforementioned two-part “hero history” for Amazing Heroes that revealed a possible proposal to revive the legendary characters: Around 1970 and 1971, one of fandom’s odder characters seriously claimed that he had the rights to the MLJ characters and planned to revive them himself… In any event, the entrepreneurial fan talked convincingly enough that at least a few people believed him, and spot illustrations of MLJ characters bearing his name in the copyright notice turned up in some major fanzines, drawn by [a] fairly well-known fan artist. Nothing ever came of the scheme, however, and after a few months we stopped hearing about it. So far as I can tell, the whole thing was just moonbeams and cobwebs in one fan’s mind, and not even Archie knew what was going on.”

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Whatever the situation, these were changing times for the comics industry. In the wake of the corporate merger frenzy that snapped up both DC and Marvel, Archie Comic Publications was juiced in the early ’70s by their ongoing success on Saturday morning television (the Archie, Josie and the Pussycats, and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch cartoon shows) and it was subsequently restructured as a public company, the newly dubbed Archie Enterprises, Inc. And, despite the advent of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll on the readership demographic, the publisher remained intent on continuing as a major purveyor of wholesome, all-ages entertainment, producing comics that told innocuous, sometimes cloying stories of teenage romance and adolescent high-jinks. This is not to say that, on occasion, the titles avoided some of the more pressing issues of that raucous age. During the early ’70s, John L. Goldwater’s Comics Code Authority was under siege after the taboo subject of drug addiction was depicted in Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man (thus printed without the organization’s stamp of approval). Scrambling to remain pertinent, the Comics Magazine Association of America quickly revised its Code restrictions to allow for cautionary portrayals of substance abuse. Archie Comics also worked topical issues into its titles. Saul Braun’s article, “Shazam! Here Comes Captain Relevant,” in the May 2, 1971, edition of The New York Times Magazine reported: Relevance is currently such a lure that even industry classics like Archie are having a stab at it. John Goldwater, president of Archie Comics, says that Archie definitely keeps up with the times, and offers as evidence Xerox copies of a silver print, which is an engraver’s photographic proof of an original drawing. It was of a recent six-page Archie story entitled, “Weigh Out Scene.” “This is a civil rights story,” Goldwater said. “It’s done subtly. It has to do with a fat boy who comes to town who can’t fit into the mainstream with the teen-agers in town. Because of his obesity, he’s taunted and humiliated. You know how kids are. Then one night Archie has a dream. And in this dream he is obese and fat and everybody is taunting him and ridiculing him and now he finally realizes what happened to this poor kid. So then there is a complete turnaround. But we don’t say, remember, this kid is black. We don’t say that. But the subtlety is there.”

To its credit, the publisher did showcase a number of stories

devoted to race relations, pollution, and even (to varying success) women’s liberation, and the characters had done their fair share in public service projects. Though the line would understandably shy away from overt political posturing, during the ’70s and early ’80s, the Riverdale gang got downright evangelical in their religious fervor, at least in those titles published under the Spire Comics logo, an imprint which was separate from Archie Comic Publications. Helmed by Archie bullpen artist Al Hartley, a converted “born again” Christian, the series of one-shots featured the Riverdale gang in stories that were remarkably explicit in their proselytizing to promote Jesus Christ. What made the books (technically published under the Fleming H. Revell Company banner) all the more remarkable was the fact that the three founders of Archie Comics were the sons of Jewish immigrants. As the Comics Code had opened the door for the industry to depict more realistically the scourge of addiction, it also made allowance for some horrifying stories, and thus came a flood of comics from most of the major publishers populated by werewolves, vampires, and man-made monsters. Curiously, Archie Comics joined the fray, though initially with an oddly hybrid approach that melded straight-on tales of terror with art drawn in the typical Archie style. Chilling Adventures in Sorcery as Told by Sabrina only lasted for two issues [Sept.–Oct. ’72], doubtless cancelled before circulation reports would be available, but their charming weirdness was impressive, and the rare deviation from teen humor was refreshing. (The title served as precursor for the short-lived but memorable Red Circle Comics Group, Gray Morrow’s mystery/horror line.) In retrospect, it’s totally understandable that the House of Archie put almost all of its focus on the core teen humor properties. The brand, after all, was stunningly successful during the ’70s, whether in TV cartoons, newspaper comic strips, pop music, and a tsunami of merchandising. In fact, an entire story in Everything’s Archie #29 [Oct. ’73] audaciously promoted the ventures of Archie Enterprises, boldly inviting readers to get the “inside stuff ” on the company. “A Share of Happening”—“share,” get it?—discussed various projects, including a few that would never be made or not last long (among the latter being the Archie Restaurant franchise, which ending up having only one location). John L. Goldwater himself made a sales pitch in the yarn. What chutzpah!

Previous page are the covers of the Archie Comics’ fascinating oddity (with one heck of a long title), Chilling Adventures in Sorcery as Told by Sabrina, #1 and 2 [Sept.–Oct. 1972], which featured straight mystery/horror scripts (by Frank Doyle) drawn in the teen humor house style (by Stan Goldberg and Dan DeCarlo). Considering there were only two issues of the monthly title, it was likely the comic was cancelled before sales figures were available. The title was revived a year later, this time shortened to Chilling Adventures in Sorcery (later just Red Circle Sorcery) and now featuring finely drawn tales by some of the best artists in the business under the direction of Gray Morrow, himself a superb delineator. Top is the letterhead for the new publicly-traded corporate entity, Archie Enterprises, Inc., which lasted for roughly a decade until the Silberkleit and Goldwater families purchased all the shares and the company was once again privately held. This page, top, sporting a super-hero gag is Jughead #132 [May ’66]. Cover by Bill Vigoda (pencils) and Martin Epps (inks).

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s

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1970s’ Red Circle Comics Group

For a brief shining moment, Archie Comic Publications was dipping its toe into the more adventurous realms of comic book genres when it debuted the Red Circle Comics Group in late summer 1973. While the line-up mostly consisted of “mystery” titles—comics that resembled the Comics Code Authority approved quasi-horror comics then a staple of DC Comics (House of Mystery, etc.), as well as Marvel (Journey into Mystery, et al.) and Charlton, and not so much super-heroes (though a MLJ hero revival was in the works)—the quality of the imprint’s offerings deserve mention here. Anyway, the crime book Red Circle did release was called The Super Cops, so what the heck!

Sorcery Supreme! Vicente Alcazár and the glorious Red Circle horror comics helmed by artist Gray Morrow by Jon B. Cooke To my knowledge, the only character resembling a super-hero that appeared in the Archie Comics line-up between 1968–79 was the Shadow-byway-of-Death-Wish pulp “hero,” The Cobra— “To him, justice was a .45 slug in the brain”— who haunted writer Marvin Channing and artist Gray Morrow’s harrowing tale, “Die in the Name of the Law,” in Red Circle Sorcery #8 [Aug. ’74]… that is, if you don’t count Dave Greenberg and Bob Hantz, the real-life New York City policemen (nicknamed “Batman and Robin”), whose exploits made it into The Super Cops, a July 1974 one-shot spinning off a buddy-slash-crime-fighters movie. But, truth be told, having just become a public company, Archie Enterprises, Inc., did hope to stretch its reach, focusing on different formats (particularly its hugely successful digest line, which remains popular today) and, for a short, glorious period, delve into the mystery/horror genre with its new imprint, the Red Circle Comics Group. But why no more super-heroes? Likely it was because of the increasing dominance of the Marvel line, and just maybe due to Archie’s having failed to adequately cash in on licensing its super-heroes in the ’60s. One might take exception that an examination of the 1970s Red Circle Comics 162

Group might be ill-fit in a survey of the MLJ costumed heroes, but upon a close look, it would be difficult to argue that the short-lived imprint did not contain the work of an amazingly talented line-up of contributors, among them Alex Toth, Jesse Santos, Howard Chaykin, Larry Hama, Pat Boyette, Bruce Jones, and Frank Thorne, as well as some of the very best work of Gray Morrow’s career. One of editor Morrow’s favorites was artist Vicente Alaczár, who shared his memories of the Red Circle days in the following e-mail chat: Jon B. Cooke: Where are you originally from and how did you develop an interest in comics and cartooning? Vicente Alcazár: I was born in Madrid, Spain. In my childhood, comics were one of the few portals to the enchanted lands of imagination where I could find relief from the crudeness of the difficult post-Civil War days in Spain. I remember dedicating hours to copying covers by my favorite comic book artists and, through the exercise, I discovered early the pleasure that comes from the act of drawing. JBC: Where did you study art? Alcazár: Though once I attended some classes at the Sir John Cass School of Art in London, I consider myself as selftaught through the contact with my peers and the enjoyment that came from so much practice.

The MLJ Companion

JBC: How did you break into the American comics scene? Alcazár: During my second trip to New York, I met Neal Adams through our mutual friend, Al Williamson. I showed Neal my published work and he put me in contact with Archie Goodwin, who assigned a short six-page war story for me to do in G.I. Combat, which Archie was editing at the time.

Red Circle Comics Group Index THE BLACK HOOD Unpublished (circa 1975) #1–2

CHILLING ADVENTURES IN SORCERY October 1973 to February 1974 #3–5

Mad house

September 1974 to January 1975 #95–97

RED CIRCLE SORCERY April 1974 to February 1975 #6–10

THE SUPER COPS July 1974 #1

JBC: Can you share your memories of Gray Morrow and your experience on the Red Circle Comics Group material? Alcazár: I met Gray at Continuity Studios shortly after I met Neal. Gray and his wife, Carol, would drop by every Friday evening and we’d go downstairs to enjoy Rick Morane’s “Happy Hour.” Later, when Gray took to editing the Red Circle titles, he asked me to do some of the stories for the magazine. With Gray, it was friendship at first sight, and I would spend long weekends with him and Carol, first while he was living in Queens, and then when he moved to New Jersey. JBC: Was Neal Adams an important connection in your career? Alcazár: For me, Neal was the key to start working in the U.S. Not only did he introduce me to Archie Goodwin, but he also let me rent some space in his offices at 48th St., in Manhattan. While I was there, I had the chance to become friends and work together with artists like Larry Hama, Ralph Reese, Sergio Aragonés, Dick Giordano, Russ

The 1970s’ Red Circle Comics Group

Heath. And soon I got to meet lots of people in the industry, as by then Neal was president of the Academy of Comic Book Arts and the members would often gather at his offices. Neal’s recognition of my work gave me the opportunity to establish a career in the United States. JBC: Where were you living during those days? Alcazár: I had my family living in Maracaibo, Venezuela, and I would be traveling back and forth to New York every so often. JBC: Of course, anything you’d like to add about the other comics work… Alcazár: To work for Warren magazines was at the top of my secret wish list when I arrived in the U.S., for they published the artists I most admired at the time. It was Neal who introduced me to editor Bill DuBay and I even inked my first work with them.

JBC: Was it fun to work on the mystery/horror titles? Did you have any favorite stories? Alcazár: Yes, it was fun. Gray gave me freedom to approach those stories whichever way I felt and I experimented with techniques of every kind. Working with Gray as an editor was like working with an ally. He would always trust and support your decisions as an artist. An anecdote: Once one of the artists working for him did not meet the deadline for publication and he asked me to fill in with less than twenty-four hours before going to print. I did the four pages of the story in that one night and we decided to invent an alias to sign for the work. That was the first “V. Hack” work that appeared in the magazine and we kept the joke for another issue.

Chapter Three: Red Circle’s ’70s Horror Comics

JBC: Can you please describe your early professional work and favorite assignments in the early years? Alcazár: My first work appeared in 1966, at Fleetway Publications, a British publisher. I drew World War II stories, which I much enjoyed illustrating. I am actually drawing war stories now for DC Thompson, also in the U.K., in the same format as I did 50 years ago at Fleetway.

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3 Gray Morrow

Creator Chat

An Interview with

Conducted by Jon B. Cooke [Editor’s Note: Material from this article appeared in Comic Book Artist Vol. 1 # 17 (Jan. 2002).] Dwight Graydon Morrow—the artist we know commonly as Gray Morrow—was a renowned comic book artist and paperback cover painter (perhaps best recalled for his Perry Phodan covers). An “artist’s artist,” he was beloved by peers and, after years as a ghost on various syndicated strips and journeyman comic book artist (where Gray’s work appeared in the Warren horror line, Classics Illustrated, and in Marvel’s black-&-white magazines—where he co-created Man-Thing), Morrow found his niche producing luxuriant color episodes of his sword and sorcery character, Orion, for Heavy Metal magazine. The artist, who had a penchant to give very short answers to long-winded questions, was interviewed by phone in March 2001 for Comic Book Artist magazine. The artist passed away on Nov. 6, 2001. This interview was transcribed by Jon B. Knutson. — JBC Jon B. Cooke: I talked to you briefly about Charlton Comics, and I had a mistaken impression that you had a studio when you were packaging [the black-&-white comics magazine] Space: 1999. That wasn’t necessarily so? Gray Morrow: I was pretty much a lone wolf. JBC: Around the same time, the Red Circle account came along? Morrow: Yeah. JBC: Can you tell me the genesis of that? Morrow: Well, I don’t remember who or why they called me in, but they did. I met with Richard Goldwater [of Archie Comics], and his art director, Victor Gorelik. They asked me if I could put together 164

a package for them. I wasn’t sure if I could or not, but I said, “Why not? I’ll give it a shot.” JBC: Were you living in New York at the time? Morrow: In Brooklyn. JBC: You brought in a lot of superlative talent to work on the Red Circle books. What were your inspirations, what did you want to achieve with the books? Were they knock-offs of the DC mystery line, or were you reaching back to the EC’s, only within Code constraints? Morrow: Well, I guess I was thinking more in terms of old movies and radio shows. That’s what I was trying to emulate. JBC: Who was [ frequent Red Circle writer] Marvin Channing? Morrow: Marvin was a friend of Alan Barber. Alan is a sort of a super film buff, like Leonard Maltin. He did several books on Above is a portrait of the late artist and manager of the Red Circle Comics Group, Gray Morrow. The artist passed away in 2001. At left is a detail of Morrow’s cover art for Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #5 [Feb. 1974]. Never quite comfortable drawing super-heroes, the man was most adept at science-fiction and fantasy illustration.

The MLJ Companion

Gray Morrow Interview

series-type movies, like The Thin Man, movies of that ilk, etc. He’s also done books on the old serials, or chapter plays. I used to visit him, and he’d run one of these things for me, sometimes two or three! I’d be up until four or five in the morning. [laughter] Where was I going with that? Oh, Marvin was a friend of Alan’s, and Marvin was a high school teacher who had literary aspirations. One thing lead to another, and he showed me some of his scripts, and they were printable. JBC: Did it just go through the grapevine that you wanted to package material for Red Circle? Morrow: Well, I called up people I thought were the best in the field, like Alex Toth. JBC: How did you know Alex? Morrow: I met him up at DC’s offices. JBC: Was it fun to work on the Red Circle stuff ? Morrow: Oh, yeah! It was a chance to have some control over the product, and do something that I always wanted to try: Take a shot at writing scripts myself. I had no training as a writer, but found out I could tell a story, after a fashion. JBC: You had a total approach for the books; for the initial issues that were coming out, you emulated a red circle on the cover, you had all the illustration taking place within a circle. The look of the books had some resemblance to Marvel, though just in very superficial ways—having a bar across the top, stuff like that. Was that instituted by the publisher, or were you looking to perhaps catch a little from the Marvel comics that were extremely popular at the time? Morrow: Not that I’m aware of, no. JBC: So, you were handed the book Chilling Tales of Sorcery, Sabrina the Teenage Witch was on the cover, and they just said, “Go to town with it, and produce a book for us”? Morrow: That’s pretty much it. JBC: Were you happy with the results? Morrow: Yeah, I was! JBC: You called up people like Frank Thorne and Vincente Alcazar.

Morrow: Yeah, they both did some beautiful stuff for the book. JBC: Did you hang out at [Neal Adams and Dick Giordano’s comics-for-advertising studio] Continuity with any regularity? Morrow: Yeah, it was very convenient. I did my business in the afternoon, and stopped up at Neal’s when I was finished, just to hang out, to catch up with whatever else was going on in the business. JBC: Do you recall why the Red Circle Sorcery line fizzled out? Morrow: Well, I was told by Rich [Goldwater] it wasn’t selling as well as they expected, which conflicted with what one of the salesmen told me at a later date. So, your guess is as good as mine. JBC: Did you have plans to reintroduce super-heroes? You had material that was produced, but not printed for quite a while, Black Hood? At top is the first issue of the Red Circle Comics Group, Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #3 [Oct. ’73]. The line was abundant with the art—and writing—of Gray Morrow, who shared the bio at left. in Red Circle Sorcery #7 [June ’74].

The 1970s’ Red Circle Comics Group

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Morrow: Oh, yeah, Black Hood. Well, I remember doing it, but I can’t tell you much more about it than that. JBC: Do you remember assigning Neal Adams to do a story? Morrow: No, did he? JBC: Yeah. Morrow: Geez, I don’t remember that, either! JBC: Eventually, maybe five years later, Archie published a Black Hood Digest that included At top are the other two Red Circle Comics Group titles. Note the house ad, upper right, which indicated a forthcoming Black Hood title. Alas Gray Morrow’s efforts for that book would not see print until long after Red Circle had ended.

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Neal’s story, plus a Black Hood story by you, if not two. It was beautiful stuff, and it seemed like you were itching to do adventure heroes. For instance, there was an issue of Sorcery which had a wonderful Green Hornet kind of character on the cover. Morrow: Oh, I remember that one, yeah, Cobra or something like that. JBC: Yeah, that was wonderful. So you were able to use your interests in radio, the old pulps, serials and occasionally go to town with it. Morrow: Yeah, that was a lot of fun.

The MLJ Companion

Red Circle Comics Group Index BLACK HOOD #1 [Unpublished] Cover: ? 8 “Black Hood” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow “It’s Murder to Beat the Odds” Marv Channing/Al McWilliams 5 “Life’s Not Like a Comic Book!” Gray Morrow (plot) Neal Adams and Dick Giordano (story & art) 10 “Black Hood Hits a Sour Note” Marv Channing/Alden McWilliams 4 Notes: Did not see print during Gray’s tenure, but was published in Archie’s Super-Hero Special Comics Digest #2 [1979] and in Blue Ribbon Comics #8 [1984] (“Black Hood Hits a Sour Note” was probably intended for the non-extant Black Hood #2). CHILLING ADVENTURES IN SORCERY #3 October 1973 Cover: Gray Morrow “…Cat!” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow 6 “A Stab in the Dark” (text with illo) ?/Morrow? 1 “Missing Link!” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow 5 “Immortality Factor” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow 5 “Haunted Gallery” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow 6 “Essays into the Supernatural” P. Seuling/Morrow 1 Notes: First two issues were Archie Comics-style horror stories told straight but drawn in the Dan DeCarlo humorous style(!), hosted by Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Those two issues sported the lengthy title Chilling Adventures in Sorcery as Told by Sabrina, and appeared in September and October 1972 respectively, one year prior to the Morrow relaunch. December 1973 Cover: Gray Morrow #4 6 “Suicide… Maybe” Vincente Alcazar/Alcazar “Loophole” (text fiction) ? 1 “Horripilate Host” ?/Dick Giordano 6 5 “Golden Touch” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow “A Thousand Pounds of Clay” Don Glut/Vincente Alcazar 6 Essays into the Supernatural: “The Witch!” Gray Morrow?/Gray Morrow 1 February 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow #5 “The Two Thieves of Baghdad” Morrow & Larry Hama/Vincente Alcazar 6 “Esmé” Vincente Alcazar/Vincente Alcazar 8 “Barometer Falling” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow 5 “The Choker is Wild” ?/Vincente Alcazar 6 Essays into the Supernatural: “Dragons” Phil Seuling/Gray Morrow 1 Notes: “Esmé” is signed “Vincente Sarrano.” Title changes to Red Circle Sorcery with #6. MAD HOUSE #95 September 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow “The Terrible Trident” Don Glut/Vincente Alcazar 6 “The Happy Dead” ?/Doug Wildey 6 “The Night of the Leopard Men” Glut/Carlos Piño 6 “Take Care of Your Little Brother!” Marv Channing/Vincente Alcazar 4 “Two Glass Bottles” (text fiction) 1 Note: Title changed from Archie humor mag Madhouse Glads. Includes half-page house ad drawn by Gray Morrow. Cover: Gray Morrow #96 November 1974 “Never Bother a Dead Man” Marv Channing/Jesse Santos 5 “Essays in the Supernatural” Marv Channing/Sal Amendola 1 The 1970s’ Red Circle Comics Group

“Demon Kiss” Bruce Jones/Bruce Jones 7 “No Respect for the Dead” (text with illo) Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 1 “The Devil’s Matchmaker” John Jacobson/Sal Amendola 4 “The Gentlest Dog on the Block” ?/Alcazar? 5 Note: John Costanza, letterer on “The Devil’s Matchmaker.” Includes half-page house ad drawn by Gray Morrow.

Essays into the Supernatural: “Poltergeists” ?/Frank Thorne 1 “Enough to Raise the Dead” Don Glut/Carlos Piño 6 “The Man Who Tried to Kill Death” Marv Channing/Alex Toth 5 Notes: “Die in the Name…” features a pulpesque adventure character, The Cobra, and includes a character modeled on Alex Toth.

#97 January 1975 Cover: Gray Morrow “The Vampire Hunter” Channing/Frank Thorne 6 Essays in the Supernatural: “Zombies” Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 1 “Cellar Dweller” ?/Gray Morrow 6 “Heaven’s Not for Losers” Ralph Alfonso/Alden McWilliams 5 “The Earth Children” (text with illos) Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 2 “Too Mean to Die” Marv Channing/Carlos Piño 5 Note: Becomes Archie-style humor title. Includes half-page house ad drawn by Gray Morrow. “The Vampire Hunter” is thinly-veiled Sherlock Holmes pastiche.

#9 October 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow “…If I Were King” Marv Channing/Alex Toth 6 “The Devil’s in Borney!” Pat Boyette/Pat Boyette 5 “The Journey” (text fiction w/illos) Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 1½ The Inner Circle (letters column)` ½ “The Goal is Death” Marvin Channing/Vincente Alcazar 5 “Come In and Meet the Piano Player” Marv Channing/Carlos Piño 5 Note: Includes half-page house ad drawn by Gray Morrow.

Red Circle Sorcery #6 April 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow “Warrior’s Dream” Steve Skeates and Mary Skrenes/Gray Morrow 5 Essays into the Supernatural: “The Werewolf” Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 1 2 “Out of Practice” ?/Ed Davis? “Death Goes to a Sales Convention” Marv Channing/Carlos Piño 5 “The Patience of a Cat” Carole Seuling/Howard Chaykin 5 “Black Fog” (text with illos) T. Casey Brennan/Gray Morrow 2 “Face of Love—Face of Death” Marv Channing/Vincente Alcazar 5 Note: Title changed from Chilling Adventures in Sorcery. June 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow #7 “A Twist in Time!” Steve Skeates/Carlos Piño 6 Essays into the Supernatural: “Dibbuk” Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 1 “The Knife of Jack the Ripper” Marv Channing/Vincente Alcazar 5 “The Super Cops” (promo page with Morrow bio) Gray Morrow?/Gray Morrow 1 “The Rivals” Marv Channing/Bruce Jones 5 “The Man Who Would Not Laugh” (text with illos) Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 2 “The Benefactor” T. Casey Brennan/ V. Hack (Vincente Alcazar) 4 Essays into the Supernatural: “Possession and Exorcism” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow 1 Note: The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide states that Bernie Wrightson, Jeff Jones, and Michael W. Kaluta assisted on Bruce Jones’ “The Rivals.” August 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow #8 “The Highwayman’s Escape!” Don Kraar/Frank Thorne 6 “The Marching Band” (text with illos) Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 2 “Die in the Name of the Law!” Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 5

Cover: Gray Morrow #10 December 1974 “Death is My Love’s Name” Marv Channing/Frank Thorne 6 Essays in the Supernatural: “Horror Films” Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 12/3 “Pirate Island” Marv Channing/Howard Chaykin 5 “The Final Battle” (text with illos) Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 1½ “One Evening on a Small Planet” Ed Newsome/Alden McWilliams 3 “The Prince of Evil!” Marv Channing/Alden McWilliams 2 “Demon Rider” ?/Wally Wood? 5 Notes: Includes separate half-page and third-page house ads drawn by Gray Morrow. Third-page announces impending release of Black Hood #1, which would not happen during Gray’s tenure. #11 February 1975 Cover: Gray Morrow “I Want to Die!” Marv Channing/Vincente Alcazar 6 Essays in the Supernatural: “Voodoo” Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 12/3 “The Eyes of Cagliostro” ?/Jack Abel 6 “Monster on My Back” Don Glut/Jim Mooney & Gray Morrow 5 “The Spectre” (text with illo) Bob Holland/Gray Morrow 2 “The Visitor” Pat Boyette/Pat Boyette 5 Note: Final issue. THE SUPER COPS 1 July 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow “Crime is Out of Fashion” Channing/Morrow 7 “Bedlam Beat” Marv Channing/Carlos Piño 5 “Men Behind the Shield” (text) Marv Channing 1 “The Next Stop… the Cemetery” Marv Channing/V. Hack (Vincente Alcazar) 6 “2 to Get Ready and 4 to Go!” Marv Channing/Frank Thorne 6 Notes: One-shot based on the “incredible but true” adventures of New York City policemen Dave Greenberg and Bob Hantz. Title simultaneously released with the 1974 Gordon Parks MGM movie, The Super Cops. [Special thanks to David A. Roach for his help.] — Compiled by Jon B. Cooke

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INTERLUDE Mighty Legion of Justice On the eve of the MLJ hero line’s ’80s resurrection by Jon B. Cooke Brooklyn-born John Vincent Carbonaro had a dream. The lifelong comics aficionado, who prior to college had helped bankroll the outstanding prozine Phase One in 1971, was intent on resurrecting the legendary T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, a renowned super-hero line from the mid- to late ’60s created by Wallace Wood. As an advertising agency accountant, he by happenstance made the acquaintance of the president of Tower Books, the T-Agents owner, from whom Carbonaro purchased rights to the characters. Soon enough, with an intention to start up his own T-Agents revival, Carbonaro struck a deal with the Archie publishers to include MLJ characters in his inaugural title, the black-&-white magazine-size JCP Features [Dec. 1981]. The first (and only) issue did include reprints of Simon and Kirby’s The Fly and the Neal Adams’ Black Hood story, but it contained no crossover between the T-Agents and MLJ’s heroes. Still, Carbonaro shared, “I wrote a story where we meet the Mighty Crusaders individually. I had [the] Black Hood pursue a villain in a car chase in one chapter. Looking from a rooftop, the original Shield had been reanimated from a statue (per a 1960s’ story). I had him explain that this was done by bio-electricity generated by Simon and Kirby’s Shield (whom I now called Captain Strong, to avoid confusion). Anyhow he’s on his way to meet the Comet, the space swashbuckler, but it seems that the process left him halfway human, dulling his senses of touch and feeling due to [the] high-density atmosphere. This gave him some invulnerability and super-strength. Comet ditches the hat and reverts to his red/white costume (which I got [Red Circle editor Rich] Buckler to use for Mighty Crusaders #1). The plan was for them to go to [the] planet the Comet was once on and have outer space adventures.” Carbonaro continued, “Hmmm… who at that time could I get to do good cosmic stuff ? My bet was on Jim Starlin. I got his rates and came back to Archie with the costs and was turned down flat in favor of Buckler’s picks.” Unfortunately, Carbonaro said, the original 168

editor of JC Features, Pat Gabriele, vanished with over twenty pages of the T-Agents/Crusaders crossover artwork. “Too bad,” Carbonaro said. “It was a nice looking book and almost ready to go.” (Apparently, instead of the Mighty Crusaders, Carbonaro replaced that team with Mike Gustovich’s Justice Machine, and the donnybrook saw print courtesy of Texas Comics, in Justice Machine Annual #1 [’83].) After Carbonaro purchased reprint rights from Archie, they initially recruited him as editor of a new Red Circle comics line. “Archie Comics was interested in getting into the new direct sales market. [And] as with me acquiring the characters in the first place, it was another case of good timing.” The Comics Journal reported in Sept. ’82, “Carbonaro said that he still has publishing rights to the material, but decided to team up with Archie [as freelance editor] because the company’s ‘publishing capital’ would be helpful in getting the series off the ground.” Writer Dwight R. Decker (a passionate fan of the MLJ Golden Age characters) was witness to a meeting between entrepreneur and publishers. “Carbonaro had to talk to the upper management at Archie comics once,” Decker writes in Amazing Heroes #51 [ July 15, ’84], “and I tagged along and sat in on the conference. On the other side of the table were Richard Goldwater ( John’s son) and Mike Silberkleit (Louis’s son), who now run the company. They were relatively young men who had evidently spent their lives in the teen funnies business, but they seemed uncertain and cautious about comic books outside that baliwick. They were interested in cracking the direct sales market and diversifying the company’s product line to appeal to fans, and probably regarded a collaboration with an outsider like Carbonaro as a reasonably risk-free way to plumb unexplored territory.” Decker, who signed on with Carbonaro to be “an unofficial technical advisor in regard to MLJ matters,” continues: Among other topics discussed, I suggested breaking out the MLJ heroes under their own marque, preferably as “MLJ” since that was the name to begin with and the one that still has the most historical validity and name recognition. Silberkleit told me that it wasn’t possible because the original partnership that formed MLJ no longer exists and

The MLJ Companion

Previous page is Mark Texeira’s cover painting for JCP Features #1 [Dec. ’81] and inset is Paul Bonanno’s drawing of “Captain Strong,” the name John Carbonaro suggested be used to differentiate the Golden Age and Silver Age versions of the Shield. This illustration was originally intended as cover for the fanzine Fandom Feature in early 1982 to promote a Mighty Crusaders/T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents crossover, but that was not to be. Art by Lou Manna (pencils) and Mike Gustovitch (inks).

reviving the old trademark would open up a troublesome can of worms. I then asked about an informal salute to the old MLJ, say a hero group called the “Mighty Legion of Justice” or some such. (Parenthetical note: in deference to other hero groups with “Legion” or “Justice” in the name, I discovered long ago that there just aren’t that many word combinations that fit “MLJ.”) Goldwater and Silberkleit looked at each other and said, “Why didn’t we think of that?”

Archie did publish and distribute the brief run of Carbonaro’s JC Comics imprint (consisting of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 and 2, and three issues of Hall of Fame Featuring the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents), though worries did arise. “Archie Comics was concerned over their Red Circle books—as they should have been—and that kept me

from doing my books, because they insisted on an eight-month lead time, giving Red Circle priority over JC Comics,” he said. “It wasn’t worth it to them to stay in a joint venture with me, plus they had moved me out as editor of Red Circle to put in Rich Buckler to edit the line.” Still, Carbonaro maintained a close relationship with Archie, even allowing T-Agent Dynamo to headline an MLJ title when the Red Circle line was facing a deadline problem. Originally intended as (the unpublished) T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #3, stories were used in Blue Ribbon Comics #12 [Sept. ’84]. “I was later told,” he exclaimed, “that of all the issues of BRC, #12 (featuring T-Agents) was the best received. Amazing!”

The Shorten-Silberkleit/Tower-Archie connection? In Comic Book Artist #14 [ July 2001], historian Michael Feldman surmises that Archie Comics honcho Louis Silberkleit was a silent partner behind Tower Comics, which produced T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Former MLJ editor and future Tower publisher Harry Shorten first partnered with Silberkleit to publish Belmont Books, “a moderately… sleazy paperback publisher” between 1960–67. Feldman continues, “One can only speculate how long Silberkleit and Shorten were partners, though probably longer than is generally acknowledged. Silberkleit makes a renewed effort in paperbacks when his pulp-turned-magazine line, Columbia Publications, is killed in Feb. ’60 by his distributor. The 1970s’ Red Circle Comics Group

“Starting in the mid–’60s is a new publishing imprint called Midwood-Tower, published by Tower Publications. It veers more toward respectability.” (Midwood was Shorten’s paperback firm between 1957–62, an outfit that specialized in racy, sexually explicit content behind provocative covers aimed at male readers.) “It is the confident opinion of this author,” Feldman continues, “that the Tower Comics line was a brief and essentially last-gasp effort on the part of the two publishers Shorten and his silent partner Silberkleit when they found their paperback lines were going down the tubes.” 169

The Red Circle Heroes of the ’80s

After taking a break in the 1970s (except for a brief Black Hood appearance in ’79), the heroes returned full-force in the 1980s, when Archie spun the characters off into a new line of periodicals called Red Circle Comics. The notion was for the House of Archie to claim its stake in the burgeoning direct sales market of that era, specifically appealing not just to the general reader but to the growing super-hero fan base. Leading the charge—once again—was the Mighty Crusaders, with Archie’s Silver Age characters, Lancelot Strong as the Shield and the Fly, getting their own series (as well as Golden-Agers Steel Sterling and the Comet helming their respective titles, along with the modernized Black Hood) and Blue Ribbon Comics was resurrected to showcase other costumed characters.

The Red Circle Years

Dropping the camp and cornball, the MLJ line of super-heroes get real and gritty for the ’80s by Rik Offenberger The concept of the direct market—comics publishers distributing their titles through stores specializing in the sale of comic books— was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling, organizer of the New York Comic Art Convention. At the time, comics were dispersed by magazine distributors and sold to newsstands, pharmacies, and candy stores. These retailers had no choices of title, quantity, or publisher. The distributor would drop off the comics, and pick up the unsold copies, charging the retailer for the sold comics only, and destroying the unsold ones. Magazine distributors refused to deal with comic book specialty shops, used book stores, or with any retailer who dealt in back issues. These distributors believed comic shops would purchase used comics from their customers for pennies, and then send those copies back for credit as “unsold.” The distributors had no way of knowing if a comic had been sold at full retail price to the reader and then repurchased by the shop, with the intention of getting both a sale and a full credit for the returned product.

shops were allowed to order specific comics directly from the publishers. The most important elements of the system were that retailers’ orders were pre-paid and non-returnable—the retailers could chose which comic titles they wanted to sell and the quantity of each they would receive. Compared to newsstand distribution, Archie Comics owners Richard Goldwater and Michael Silberkleit saw the new direct market system as a bonanza. The newsstand distributor would subtract unsold returns from their payments to

Seuling formed Seagate Distributors as a method to get comics into the hands of collectors and enthusiasts. He made deals with Archie, DC, Marvel, and Warren to buy their comic books from a central distribution center in Sparta, Illinois. This was called the direct market distribution system, wherein specialty At right, cover detail from The Mighty Crusaders #6 [Mar. ’84], with art by Rich Buckler (pencils) and Ricardo Villagran (inks). Next page, top, is detail from Jim Steranko’s cover for The Fly #1 [May ’83] and, bottom, back cover detail by artist Gray Morrow for The Black Hood #1 [June ’83].

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Red Circle/Archie Adventure Series Index

the Mighty Crusaders March 1983 to September 1985 #1–13

THE Original Shield April 1984 to October 1984 #1–4

SHIELD/STEEL STERLING December 1983 #3

STEEL STERLING January 1984 to July 1984 #4–7

Out,” and a Black Hood tale originally printed in 1979, “Life’s Not Like A Comic Book,” drawn by Neal Adams and written by Gray Morrow. Archie sales were strong at Seagate, and Seuling spoke with Silberkleit and Goldwater about producing more titles. Richard Goldwater hired John Carbonaro to edit a relaunched line of super-hero comics under the Red Circle brand. The name had been used by Archie prior, most recently with the Red Circle horror comics line of the ’70s, which also released the one-shot movie adaptation, The Super Cops.

Carbonaro started production with two titles: The Fly and Captain Thunder Bunny Strong. Prior to this, CapJanuary 1984 tain Strong had sported #1 the name the Shield, in The Double Life of Private Strong. Carbonaro didn’t want confusion between the Simon and Kirby Shield and the Golden Age Shield, and he thus felt a name change would solve any problem.

The Red Circle Heroes of the ’80s

Chapter Four: The Red Circle Heroes of the ’80s

Archie and, by the time the accounting was done, Archie wouldn’t know if a comic was successful for approximately six months after publication. With Seagate—and the 20 regional direct distributors that soon followed in its wake—Archie was able to calculate prior to publication how well a comic would sell in the direct market based on ARCHIE’S SUPER HERO SPECIAL pre-orders. 1978 #1 In 1981, longtime ARCHIE’S SUPER HERO comics fan John CarbonCOMICS DIGEST MAGAZINE aro purchased Wallace 1979 Wood’s classic 1960s #2 Tower Comics title, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Black Hood and formed JC Comics, June 1983 to October 1983 using his initials as the #1–3 imprint’s name. Shortly Blue Ribbon Comics after acquiring rights to the November 1983 to December 1984 T.H.U.N.D.E.R. heroes, #1–14 Carbonaro made an arrangement with Archie THE Comet Comics to print and October 1983 to December 1983 distribute JC’s titles, which #1–2 were initially black-&white, magazine-size THE Fly periodicals. The first of May 1983 to October 1984 these, JCP Features, in#1–9 cluded the early Silver Age Lancelot Strong, The ShiEld Fly story, Joe Simon and June 1983 to August 1983 Jack Kirby’s “The Hide#1–2

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“Under my brief editorialship, I changed his name to Captain Strong to differ the Simon and Kirby revamp from the original Shield. As proof, look at Mighty Crusaders #1 which I edited and got paid for, though Archie put Buckler’s name on it,” Carbonaro said. “Buckler never seemed to remember to call him by the new name and probably confused everyone. Also Chris Adames and Charlie Boatner were previously T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents writers (one of them wrote that story; I think Chris) and Paul Bonanno was my pick of artist as I got him to work on my T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents, as well.” Carbonaro had been a customer at Rich Buckler’s comic shop. Buckler had been working as a comic artist for years at both DC and Marvel Comics. The pair shared a mutual fondness for the MLJ heroes and Carbonaro hired Buckler to do some concept drawing for the relaunch of the Archie heroes. Carbonaro brought Buckler to his first meeting with Goldwater. Much like Carbonaro’s JC Comics, Archie started printing and distributing Buckler’s Galaxia magazine. It wasn’t long before Goldwater named Buckler managing editor of the Red Circle line.

comics line expanded its distribution to include newsstands, as well as direct sales comic shops. The publisher’s strong newsstand presence (anchored by its stalwart teenage humor titles) prompted a change of imprint from Red Circle to Archie Adventure Series. Alas, even with the re-branding, the magazines failed to retain a newsstand audience, whether pharmacies, convenience stores, or candy shops. Unfortunately, the Archie Adventure line had large returnable numbers and the Red Circle adventure was finished. While the Red Circle/ Archie Adventure Series produced during Buckler’s tenure were ultimately short-lived, for many fans they remain some of the most fondly remembered versions of these characters.

Along with his editing chores, Buckler wrote and drew much of the line. At the height of the operation, there were three editors: Buckler, brother-in-law and former Warren Publications editor/ writer Bill DuBay, and über fan and comics historian Robin Snyder, all working on eight monthly titles. Among the titles were The Fly, The Black Hood, Blue Ribbon Comics, Mighty Crusaders, The Comet, The Shield/Steel Sterling, and more. Archie stood behind the line for a while, publishing several issues of multiple titles and even signing a deal with Remco Toys to produce mass-marketed Mighty Crusaders action figures. The Top is Rich Buckler’s back cover illustration, depicting the mighty MLJ heroes, from The Mighty Crusaders #1 [Mar. ’83]. At right is panel detail from Lancelot Strong, The Shield #1 [June ’83]. Art by Adrian Gonzales (pencils) and Rudy Nebres (inks). Next page is original promo art by Buckler.

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Chapter Title

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4 Rich Buckler An Interview with Creator Chat

Conducted by Paul Castiglia [Editor’s Note: Rich Buckler is perhaps best known for his work on Marvel Comics’ The Fantastic Four in the mid-1970s and for creating Deathlok. He has drawn virtually every major character at Marvel and DC. Rich worked as the editor of the Red Circle Comics line from 1983 to 1984 and personally recruited Cary Burkett to write the Mighty Crusaders title.] Paul Castiglia: What was your first exposure to the MLJ heroes? Were you already aware of them before taking on your first Mighty Crusaders assignment? Rich Buckler: Working at Archie Comics in the ’80s to revive their characters for the direct sales comic market was for me a labor of love. My affection for the MLJ heroes goes back to my fan days in the late ’60s, when I first met Roy Thomas and Professor Jerry Bails. But the idea of reviving the Archie/Red Circle characters in the ’80s originated with John Carbonaro. John took the idea to Archie with the intention initially of reviving the Fly and Lancelot Strong, The Shield. John and I met at my retail comic book store in Staten Island and we talked things over. At first, John wanted to hire me to do some concept drawing. I wanted to be much more involved than that. So we set up a meeting with publisher Richard Goldwater, who was very enthusiastic about the prospect. He actually took it further by entertaining the possibility of reviving all of Archie’s super-hero properties. This was when Archie Comics still had their publishing offices in Manhattan. John’s interests were fan-based and included a desire to collaborate with the publisher to exploit the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents property he had just acquired the rights for. I had considerable editing and publishing skills and I knew all of the Archie/ Red Circle characters. So that’s what I brought to the table. Plus—and this was a big plus—I had extensive experience in dealing with the comics direct market both as a publisher and a comic book retailer. The timing seemed to be right and I was confident that I could take things to the next stage and make it actually happen for them. I remember clearly when Richard asked me: “So, when do we start, and what do you need to get started?” And I said, “Just give Above is Rich Buckler’s painted self-portrait. The artist has spent considerable time producing simply magnificent surrealistic paintings. At left is a mirrored cover detail, penciled and inked by Buckler, from The Mighty Crusaders #2 [May ’83].

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Rich Buckler Interview

me a telephone and my own office to work in and we can begin right away. Why wait?” PC: You went from writing and drawing Mighty Crusaders stories to also editing them. What did that involve? Was it a smoother transition since you had previous experience with the characters? Buckler: Actually I started out as the managing editor of the entire line of new Red Circle titles. I chose the titles initially and hired all of the writers and artists. The publishers had no plan for any of this, aside from the intention of making the Mighty Crusaders team a sort-of Archie Comics version of The Avengers. I designed the new logo for Red Circle and I pushed to revive that company name. By the way, when they later opted for the “Archie Adventure Series” label to replace the Red Circle product identity, I protested. I still feel strongly that it was a mistake. Retailers already had a working profile of “Archie” as product, and I think the changeover confused comics buyers and hurt sales. From the beginning, my advice about entering the superhero arena was for the publisher not to go directly up against Marvel and DC. There was at that time plenty of room in the marketplace for another mainstream comics company’s superhero output. I felt that we could definitely explore all of the characters in dynamic ways that provided competitive content without imitating either of those two companies. PC: Quite a few stories that you wrote and drew were also edited by you. Did you have anyone else take an editorial look at these stories or did you act exclusively as your own editor? What was your process? Buckler: My editorial approach was first to generate ideas, and then find the right writer and artist team for each book. After that, let the creators do their stuff. As managing editor, I was on my own at first, with almost total creative freedom. I just made some calls, hired all the creative talent, and we were off and running. And, no, I had nobody to answer to or have writers meetings with or anything like that. So creatively I was given carte blanche. The only editor on my work for Mighty Crusaders was me. I also edited many of the other titles (all of the first issues, except for Blue Ribbon Comics). Once things got rolling I brought in Robin Snyder as an editorial assistant. PC: Issue #2 of the Red Circle Mighty Crusaders featured “The Malevolent Legion of Juggernauts”—counterfeit, villainous versions of classic MLJ heroes Captain Flag, Bob Phantom, Steel Sterling, Hangman, Black Jack, the Fox, and Firefly. Did you hand-pick the characters? Was the hope to gauge reader reaction and determine which classic heroes were worthy of a full resurrection? Buckler: That was exactly the idea. And I did this on my own initiative. I figured, what was the downside? If none of the characters I used were the “real” ones, then there was no downside—and we could bring in the kosher versions later once we got feedback from our readers.

The Red Circle Heroes of the ’80s

PC: Did you have any favorite characters—heroes, villains or otherwise—among the various stories you wrote or edited? Buckler: My favorite characters were the ones created by Simon & Kirby: Lancelot Strong/The Shield and The Fly. But I knew all of the other characters fairly well from my fanzine days. My goal was to reintroduce the Archie/Red Circle/MLJ characters to a new audience and still be true to the comics audience from the generation before mine. PC: The Blue Ribbon anthology series gave readers an opportunity to enjoy a variety of characters. Was there a plan in place regarding which heroes to spotlight, or was it done more on a “tryout” basis to see which characters would “stick” based on reader response and sales? Buckler: That was the purpose for that book. Like DC’s DC Presents or Showcase titles. PC: Some of your Fly scripts were penciled by Steve Ditko. Did you interact at all with Steve during the process or did he work from fully completed scripts? Buckler: I interviewed Steve Ditko at the Archie offices before hiring him. He worked from full scripts. I inked his first pencil job because I thought that while he did a serviceable job, I didn’t think he was really into it. Frankly, when he handed in his pencil pages I was disappointed. I was hoping for much more than I ended up getting, like the material Alex Toth handed

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in—which blew me away. So Steve and I did interact, sort of, but I don’t think we were ever really on the same page, so to speak. PC: You created a new member for the Mighty Crusaders team, Darkling. She was very contemporary in comparison to her teammates, even with their ’80s updates. Was it your idea to create a new hero for the team, and that it be a female character? How did you come up with Darkling, what were the challenges of introducing such a character, and do you think you achieved what you desired with her? Buckler: I felt very strongly that there was not enough of a female presence in the membership roster for the Crusaders. We had Fly-Girl, but— hey, a female version of the Fly. Not exactly a strong showing. And there was some redundancy in the group. Two Shields. We inched out the original Shield from the group, but I always loved that character so he got his own ongoing feature. Regarding Darkling, I favor strong female characters. Since there were none in the company’s roster that were already created,

I decided to come up with a new one. Call it intuition, but I felt that the comics audience we were reaching would welcome Darkling—which is a character I had created just prior to starting at Archie/Red Circle. And it was a fortunate opportunity to create something new while exploiting the old and tried and true! The folks at Archie eventually killed her off—as an Archie character, at least—which they did for reasons I have yet to fathom. I still own the character though and she will be appearing in a few independent comics soon—so Darkling is no longer with the Mighty Crusaders, but she is definitely not dead. PC: Some of the Red Circle stories you edited hearkened back to the grittiness of the Golden Age MLJ comics, with the Hangman actually executing a killer, and Mr. Justice facing off against the leader of a suicide cult. These were direct-market only titles, not-yet branded with the Archie logo nor submitted to the Comics Code. Yet, it is still surprising and ironic that these were greenlit, given Archie’s reluctance just a few years afterward to move forward with the Spectrum line.

At top is Rich Buckler’s awesome wraparound cover featuring Mr. Justice, drawn for Blue Ribbon Comics #2 [Nov. 1983]. Blue Ribbon started off as a “Baxter book”—a comic book printed on high-quality paper—though by the time Jack Kirby contributed his great Shield cover (seen above) for BRC #5 [Feb. ’84], it used newspint stock. Inks by Buckler.

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The Eve of Neal Adams

The legendary artist got started at… Archie Comics?

Before his golden age at DC, before creating Marvel classics, even before his ground-breaking Warren work and syndicated comic strip artistry, Neal Adams—the visionary comic book artist who, in the wake of the campy Batman TV series, completely invigorated and revitalized the super-hero genre—got his start in the field drawing… Archie Andrews gags? Yep, back in 1959, aspiring cartoonist Adams, a graduate of the School of Industrial art, was rejected by DC and gave Archie a try, where idol Jack Kirby was contributing.

During 1960, Adams, though his talent as super-hero artist is clearly evident in that single Fly panel, enthusiastically took on ‘Archie’ gag work, aping the Bob Montana style. (Ty Templeton points out, in his blog devoted to “Top Ten Reasons to Love Neal Adams,” that one was that the artist wasn’t afraid to take on any assignment while starting out, “[B]ecause it was honest work.”) Adams single- and half-pagers appeared in Pep and Archie’s Joke Book, before he moved on to advertising and comic strip assignments.

“[At age 17] I started to do samples for Archie,” the artist shared, “and I left my Fly samples there. A couple weeks later when I came in to show my ‘Archie’ samples, I noticed that the pages were still there, but the bottom panel was cut off of one of my pages. I said, ‘What happened?’ They said, ‘One of the artists did this transition where Tommy Troy turns into the Fly and it’s not very good. You did this real nice piece, so we’ll use that, if it’s ok.’ I said, ‘That’s great. That’s terrific.’” That panel, seen above, is in The Fly #4 [ Jan. ’60].

Many years later, in 1974, Adams produced the ten-page Black Hood story, “Life’s Not Like a Comic Book,” for friend and peer Gray Morrow, who was packaging a new title for the Red Circle Comics Group to bring a crime-story take to the character. Unfortunately that series would remain unpublished until 1979, reproduced at unfortunate dimensions in Archie’s Super Hero Comics Digest Magazine #2. It would finally be reproduced at larger size in Blue Ribbon #8 [May ’84).

Samples of Neal Adams’ work for Archie. Top is his sole panel in The Fly #4 [Jan. ’60]; above is gag strip from Archie’s Joke Book #46 [May ’60]; right from The Black Hood #3.

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How did this transpire? Did Archie management simply give you free rein when the line was direct-market only? Buckler: Well, the concept from the start was to launch all of the titles as direct market only. That, for me, did not mean automatically going with dark and “adult” themes. My sensibility has always been more along the lines of comics for “kids of all ages.” It was [Bill] DuBay, who came in later, that took Mr. Justice in that dark direction. I had “free rein,” yes, but by that time there were three editors (four, if you count the publisher), and things were veering far from my original vision. So, in the beginning there was no mad rush to be didactic or controversial or “cutting edge” (whatever that means!) and “adult.” I did initiate a few “firsts” and I encouraged my writers to think outside the box. Funny, my idea of things, my approach—is that there is no box! But the focus was always to stay true to the characters.

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Anyhow, the idea initially was to do exciting super-hero comics that were high quality—and also fun! I think we did accomplish that. I saw my role in this much like my participation in co-creating the All-Star Squadron with Roy Thomas, at DC Comics. That was mostly Roy’s show. With the Archie characters, I was running the show—at least at the very beginning. PC: The stories you and your colleagues wrote and drew for the Red Circle/Archie Adventure Series titles compare favorably to the Marvel and DC output of the time, with a similar look and tone. Do you feel, if Archie had decided to continue to invest in the line, that any one character or series would have taken off and potentially had the same popularity of the marquee characters from the “Big Two?” Buckler: I think we measured up and had a very strong showing. Okay, let’s take a look at the talent involved. I was able to hire Alan Weiss, Ricardo Villagran, Tony DeZuniga, Jack C. Harris, Cary Burkett, Marty Greim, Jim Sherman, Adrian Gonzales, Brian Buniak, Daryl Skelton—all solid go-getters who did top notch work! Plus industry stalwarts like Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, Frank Giacoia, Alex Toth, Steve Ditko, Gray Morrow, John Severin, and Jim Steranko. A continued strong commitment to what we began should have led to even greater things, I think. But who knows? It was certainly a magical and exciting time for comics, that’s for sure.

The MLJ Companion

With One Magic Clap…

Martin Greim brings Thunder Bunny into Red Circle by Jon B. Cooke Thunder Bunny, who appeared for a single solo issue and a couple of guest spots during his short stay at Archie Comics, is certainly one of the odder additions to the Red Circle line-up: a mash-up of the funny animal and super-hero genres that originated in fanzines and then hopped from publisher to publisher during the mid-1980s. The creation of fanzine publisher Martin Greim, the character is also an homage of sorts to the Golden Age version of Captain Marvel, replete with magical transformation from young man to super-hero (only the device in Thunder Bunny wasn’t the magic word “Shazam,” but a hand-clap). The Greim-scripted stories, which had previously appeared in Charlton Bullseye and later would have his own series published by WaRP Graphics, were not only charming in their own right; they also featured cameos galore by notable comics fans and pros, as well as inside jokes. “Thunder Bunny was a marvelously enjoyable fan creation,” Steven Thompson said on his blog. “Lots of fannish references abounded.” In fact, so many comics personalities appear in the Red Circle one-shot’s “The Greatest Story Ever Sold” (expertly caricatured by Brian Buniak, who drew the majority of Thunder Bunny’s exploits wherever the character appeared), which takes place at a New York Phil Seuling Comic Con, some cameos are downright obscure. Still, it is all great fun, and among the identifiable celebs are Jack Kirby, Frank Frazetta, Dr. Fredric Wertham, Neal Adams, and Bernie Wrightson (never mind the fan-dealers identified by name!). Jon Morris describes the origin of Thunder Bunny in his 2015 book, The League of Regrettable Superheroes: The long-lasting appeal of super-heroes can be attributed, at least in part, to their inherent escapism, especially for young readers. Kids can imagine themselves decked out in a colorful costume and possessing all those wonderful powers, gadgets, and skills. Some heroes, like the original Captain Marvel, capitalize on that sense of wonder by having the hero transform from a child into a super-powered champion. Such a transformation happens to Bobby Caswell, adolescent comic book fan, when he stumbles across a crashed spaceship. The ship’s sole denizen—the last survivor of a doomed civilization—passes on to Bobby the power of his planet’s greatest hero. All Bobby must do is concentrate, clap his hands, and he is transformed—into a giant pink rabbit clad in Spandex! It’s an absurd turn of events, though not a completely raw deal. While inhabiting the form of Thunderbunny, Bobby gains tremendous strength, is invulnerable to harm, and can move and fly with the speed of lightning. The one drawback (aside from looking like Bugs Bunny on steroids): the longer he remains in Thunderbunny’s impressive cartoon-headed form, the more difficult it is to return to his human self. Bobby Caswell runs the risk of becoming an anthropomorphic bunny for life!

The Red Circle Heroes of the ’80s

Besides the clever, funny, and tightly-scripted stories (as well as the usually impressive artwork), what also is worthy of notice in the tales of the giant pink rodent is the sense of place. The series is firmly set in the Northeast, specifically Massachusetts, boasting even a guest appearance by then Mass. Governor Michael Dukakis and walk-on by celebrated Boston newscaster Natalie Jacobson, in TB’s full-length appearance in Blue Ribbon Comics #13 [Oct. ’84]. (Completists should note TB also appears in Pep #393 [Mar. ’84]). In an interview conducted by Bradley S. Cobb for the Mighty Crusaders website, the character’s creator said, “As for Thunder Bunny being just another ‘funny animal book,’ I’d have to say no!” Greim continued, “He was and is unique. He also lasted a lot longer than Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew by Roy Thomas. In fact, Thomas was originally going to call Captain Carrot ‘Thunder Bunny,’ until he was advised that I owned the character. He tried to get DC Comics to buy the name and I refused to sell.” 179

4 Cary Burkett An Interview with Creator Chat

Conducted by Bradley S. Cobb [Editor’s Note: Cary Burkett has been interested in comics since his youth. He began at DC Comics, working his way up through the editorial staff and creating his own super-hero, Nemesis. At DC, Cary teamed with Rich Buckler on World’s Finest and developed a respect for Rich’s strong storytelling skills. When Rich moved to Red Circle, he asked Cary to work on Mighty Crusaders, and he also freelanced as a writer for Marvel Comics. Burkett currently lives in central Pennsylvania and can be heard on-air at WITF-FM, where he hosts the radio show Classical Air.] Bradley S. Cobb: What was your first introduction to the Mighty Comics heroes? Cary Burkett: As a kid, I was always on the lookout for new superhero comics, always interested in checking out new titles regardless of the brand. I had read some Fly issues in the ’60s and some Jaguar issues, and thought they were okay. And when the Mighty Comics started coming out, I checked them out as well. It was very frustrating because I really wanted to like them, but found them embarrassingly bad. I hated the whole “camp” thing as a kid, hated it in the Batman TV show and hated it in Mighty Comics. But I kept coming back to the comics because at the time I was really interested in the so-called Golden Age of comics and hungry to find out more about it. The characters in The Mighty Crusaders seemed to me that they might have been very interesting if the stories hadn’t been so “camp,” and I was frustrated by that approach. But for those who claim that Mighty Comics were more ridiculous than other super-hero comics of the period, take another look. This was from around the same era when Jimmy Olsen was turning into “porcupine boy” or “Pinocchio-Olsen” or some such every month. It was the era of Krypto leading the Legion of SuperPets, Bat-Mite, the Bizarro World, and so forth. And who could forget that great hero—Bouncing Boy! There’s a character to strike fear in the hearts of criminals. And what about Matter-Eater Lad from the planet Bismoll? He could eat anything! What a superpower! The point is not that these were bad comics—some of them had a real charm—it’s just to point out that super-hero comics were not taken all that seriously in the period when Mighty Comics were published. I remember once when Mike Barr and I were sharing an office at DC Comics; he dug back into the archives of the comics from this Above is an uncredited photo of Cary Burkett. At left is cover detail from Rich Buckler’s The Mighty Crusaders #8 [July ’84] cover featuring (clockwise from immediate left) the Fly, Dr. Malcolm Reeves, Darkling, the Black Hood, and the Web.

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BSC: What brought you over to Red Circle Comics? Burkett: Rich Buckler brought me over. Actually, I think I called him looking for work, but it might have been the other way around. Rich and I were acquainted from DC Comics, not close friends, but knew each other. Rich was one of the best artists to draw my stories at DC. In particular I remember he drew a number of my scripts for the Superman/Batman teamup feature in World’s Finest Comics. I was always glad when Rich got assigned one of my scripts. It wasn’t just his drawing talent, but also the fact that he had a strong sense of storytelling that I appreciated. Rich could do the flashy, cinematic techniques and enhance a sequence, but he could also do the solid, less-noticeable things that just made the story flow better. I’d see little touches he put in my scripts that helped clarify things; a little establishing shot panel added here, a transition panel added there to smooth things out. Rich knew what he was doing, and I learned stuff from seeing how he handled my scripts. And Rich was my sole connection at Red Circle. I didn’t know anybody else there, though I knew some of the freelancers who were doing work on the books. But no one in management. I was very interested in doing a team super-hero book at the time, and I always thought The Mighty Crusaders had potential. As I recall, Rich asked me what I was interested in doing, and I told him I wanted to do The Crusaders. He said he was writing and drawing the first couple of issues, but after that, he wanted me to take over as the regular writer. At least that’s the way I remember it. There were certain initial restrictions, I recall. The Comet had been written out for the time being, and the Original Shield was also not to appear for several issues because he was part of a plotline called “The Trial of the Shield” that was being run as a back-up series. Rich also offered me an issue of The Black Hood to write, though I was less interested in that character and was never intended to be the regular writer. BSC: Was your run on The Mighty Crusaders supposed to last only four issues [#4, 5, 7, 8]? Burkett: My recollection is that I was to become regular writer for the foreseeable future for Crusaders. I seem to vaguely recall Rich telling me that there might be an issue or two written by someone else dealing with the Original Shield. As it turns out,

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Cary Burkett Interview

period to find a particular issue of Lois Lane. In the sequence he showed me, Lois was trying to figure out a way to get in touch with Superman. She couldn’t find him, but she figured that since Superman always came to her rescue, the best way to contact him was to jump off a cliff so he would come flying in to save her from death. And so she did! And he did! We both howled with laughter about that. And that episode was published, I think, only a few years before Mighty Comics started up. As for the art, Paul Reinman was no worse than Bob Kane on Batman. I’m talking about the stuff Kane actually drew, not the many ghost artists like Joe Giella and Dick Sprang. And John Forte was drawing the “Legion of Super-Heroes” around that time; not a period of stellar art for them either. Comics were a different world, then.

that did happen in the middle of my storyline. Issue #6 was a kind of weird interruption, and placing it in the middle of my storyline didn’t make sense. I’m not sure why that happened, but my guess is that the art was late for my story, and they had this issue already completed. Who knows? I think, by the point in time that issue was published, Rich was either gone, or on his way out. And once he was gone, my tenure on Crusaders was over as well. BSC: What were your plans past issue #8? Burkett: I don’t remember much about the plans I had for the Crusaders after the four-issue storyline dealing with the Jaguar. I know there was in the back of my mind the idea to continue trying to develop individual heroes within the context of the team-adventures, and particularly those who didn’t have their own features. Jaguar was one at the time, and the Web was another. In the few discussions I had with Rich, I remember wanting to flesh these characters out, personality-wise, so that each one was distinctive and played off the others in a unique way. I felt we should try to emphasize the differences between the characters so that they had different speech-patterns, different ways of reacting to things, so a reader could read a speech balloon and know which character was speaking even before seeing who the balloon was pointing to. Of course that can only work in a limited degree in a book like Crusaders, where many of the characters were appearing in their own features. 181

I remember admiring very much the Justice League stories that Steve Englehart wrote, and the way he developed the personalities of those characters. So many of them were appearing elsewhere, and, in fact, were being defined in their own features. He couldn’t stray too far from that, and yet he was still able to do some subtle things to differentiate between the characters. Think about it: aside from Green Arrow and Wonder Woman, most of the time the only way to differentiate between the speech patterns of those characters was whether they said, “Great Krypton!,” “Great guppies!,” or “By Thanagar’s moons!” You could switch dialogue between Flash or Green Lantern without noticing it; and to a lesser extent, Hawkman, Atom, and Aquaman. Unless, of course it was something really specific to the powers of that character like, “Gasp! I’ve been out of water more than an hour! Starting...to feel...faint!” Englehart, more than any other writer I remember, really pushed to help give the characters greater definition without remaking them. And that’s the direction I hoped to go with Crusaders. I

wanted to broaden the differences between the characters, highlight their unique qualities, make them come alive a little. I’m sure in one of my notebooks I’ve got little character sketches and thoughts that I developed for each of the characters. Of course, with Red Circle just starting out, I wrote my first few issues of Crusaders without having seen any of the other books, except for Black Hood. So I didn’t have a strong sense of who these characters were in their own books. Rich gave me some background, which helped, but I really expected that I’d be able to go a little deeper once I had seen how the characters were being handled in their own features. BSC: Can you shed some light on why the imprint changed from Red Circle to Archie Adventure? Burkett: I don’t know anything about the behind-thescenes stuff. To me, the switch in titles is a clear signal that Rich was gone by that time, even though his name may have appeared on some of the books as editor. Those issues were probably developed by Rich, and still around as inventory, but I doubt he was still on staff when they were published. Those in management no doubt felt that the “Archie” title was more recognizable, and might have wanted to try to reach out to their traditional, younger audience. The problem at Red Circle was that there really was no solid definition to the characters to speak of. Each writer that came along had his own ideas about the characters. Some of the ideas were very interesting, but they didn’t always mesh with what the other writers were doing. I think Rich was trying to bring that about, but was dealing with a lot of creative people who were into doing their own thing, and not looking at the larger picture. Rich got some great talents to work at Red Circle, but never really was able to instill a common vision into the creators. There was a problem with consistency and cohesiveness. And after he left, things totally fell to pieces in that department. I understand and to some degree sympathize with the argument that too much continuity can bog things down in comics. But there’s got to be some consistency. It’s like each new writer tried to re-create these characters from scratch. That’s very confusing to readers. BSC: Did you create any characters for the series? Burkett: No new heroes, if that’s what you mean. There were too many already in the Crusaders, in my opinion. My books had Fly, Fly-Girl, Lancelot Strong, the Web, Jaguar, Black Hood, Darkling, and Dr. Reeves. And two members that didn’t appear in my

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storyline were Comet and the Original Shield. That line-up was dictated to me. Darkling and Dr. Reeves were creations that Rich had added in the first three issues. (I think that Gary Cohn actually created Darkling, if memory serves, working with Rich.) The Crusaders did need another female, and I thought Darkling had potential, but I knew very little about her or the limits of her powers. I think I spent more time talking on the phone with Rich about exactly what Darkling could do than about any other subject. Somewhere down the line, I know that Rich had plans to develop Darkling more. Maybe there was going to be an issue written by Gary that went into her background in more detail; I don’t recall. But I know that was a task reserved for another writer, and I had no plans along those lines. BSC: How did you like the visual adaptation of your stories? Burkett: I said I always liked Rich’s work on my stories, and I wish he had drawn all the Crusader stories. And one of the reasons I wanted to write the Black Hood issue was because Rich told me that Gray Morrow would be doing the art. BSC: The origin of the Jaguar—was this your idea, or was this a collaborative effort? Burkett: I take full blame for this. Jaguar was one of the Crusaders who didn’t have his own feature at the time. I thought it was important to dig into the roots of the individual characters, more than the little one-page origins that had been produced. And the Jaguar’s origin was irresistible to me, because it left so much unexplained. Essentially he found a magic belt and turned into the Jaguar. But where did the belt come from? Why was he chosen to find it? Those were not really important questions in the ’60s, when Jaguar first came out. Essentially, it’s the same origin as Thor. But of course, as Thor became successful, the questions about where the magic hammer had come from and why Don Blake found it had to be answered. I thought it would be interesting to explore the same questions with the Jaguar. And I thought it would help define the Jaguar, make him more distinctive if he had a mythology of his own that would help give him a different type of motivation than the other characters. Instead of Father Odin, however, the “mentor” I created for him was a sort of Guardian Animal spirit, Varigon. And of course seeds are sown then for possible future conflicts if Varigon’s agenda doesn’t coincide with some Crusader missions. At least this was in the back of my mind. BSC: Did you try to spotlight one character more than the others? Previous page bottom features writer Cary Burkett’s own design for Lord Varigon, the Jaguar’s “sort of guardian animal spirit.” This appeared in the letters column of Blue Ribbon Comics #6 [Mar. ’84]. Inset top is cover detail from The Mighty Crusaders #5 [Jan. ’84], with art by Rich Buckler (pencils) and Tony DeZuñiga (inks). This page top inset is a “DC Profile” that ran in various DC comics in 1978. The writer contributed to numerous anthology titles for that publisher during the late ’70s.

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Burkett: Not really, except that that plotline centered around events connected with the Jaguar, as I mentioned. Still, I think I tried to give all the Crusaders a chance to show their stuff in some way. Different stories do tend to highlight different characters, but in general, I think every hero on a team should have a significant contribution to make in team books. BSC: Where did the Sub-Cycle come from [Black Hood #1, page 13]? Burkett: This is the cycle that Comet gave the Black Hood in one of Rich’s first issues of Mighty Crusaders. I didn’t come up with it; I assume it was Rich’s idea. It does strike you as sort of silly in the context of Black Hood’s own comic, as drawn by Gray Morrow, with a very “realistic” approach to weaponry. I think Gray was very meticulous in depicting accurate versions of the different types of guns Black Hood used. And then here is this science-fiction cycle given to the Hood by a guy who has his own spaceship. As adults, I suppose we are bothered by these odd stylistic “jolts,” but most kids don’t have a problem with them. It’s part of the convention of the super-hero genre. In some ways, I suppose, Gray would have liked to see Black Hood move outside of those conventions, but that couldn’t happen while he was a member of the Crusaders. Still, Gray’s Black Hood certainly went in that direction. Let me also say that I was really surprised to see that issue published as Black Hood #1. When Rich and I plotted that story, he gave me some very specific background information to follow up on. As I recall it, my story was to follow a story in which Kip Burland falls in love with a deaf girl. The deaf girl is then murdered, which gives him impetus to fight crime. I included a brief flashback to this event in my story, thinking it would have happened in the previous issue. But there was no previous issue. Maybe this event happened in a digest or something, I don’t know if such a story ever appeared. But if I had known my story was going to be a first issue, I would have gone into a lot more detail about this background. BSC: Any insight as to why the line was cancelled? Burkett: No, though they always say the bottom line is sales. In a large sense I’m sure that’s true. 183

The Mighty Crusaders Action Figure Line Recalling Remco’s ‘Mighty Punch’ toy super-heroes by Paul Castiglia From the 1950s through the mid-1990s, the toy company Remco was one of the steady “independents” in the field. Producing a variety of toys from board games to dolls to vehicles, among their most popular offerings were action figures. Initially their figures were on the novelty side. These included everything from big-headed 1960s figures of characters from the Addams Family and Munsters TV shows, an I Dream of Jeannie doll with Barbie®-like fashions, to a line of “Energized” figures (figures with slight electronic features) based on Marvel and DC heroes. Ultimately Remco ended up releasing more standard articulated action figures, of such fan-favorites as DC’s Sgt. Rock, Conan the Barbarian and the Universal Monsters. In 1984, Remco struck a deal with Archie Comics to produce a line of action figures based on the Mighty Crusaders super-heroes and villains. The line-up consisted of four heroes and four villains. On the side of justice were The Comet, the Fox, the Shield and the Web. The dastardly villains they faced off against were the Brain Emperor, the Eraser, Sting and Buzzard. Of particular note is the fact that Sting and Buzzard appeared as action figures a year before they made their comic book debuts.

Most of the figures came with accessories. These included weapons with holsters and a “secret sonic signaling shield” which could be blown like a whistle. Each also had “punch action,” activated by pushing a button in the figures’ backs. The package art for the figures was done by none other than comic book legend, Steve Ditko. Available exclusively at K-Mart stores, ads for the figures were featured in Archie-published comics. While not a huge success, they are much sought-after by collectors today. The relationship between Remco and Archie was mutually beneficial: just as Remco brought Archie’s comic book heroes to life via three dimensional toys, Archie returned the favor and created a comic book series and backstory for Remco’s line of human-robot mashup action figures, Mantech Robot Warriors. The series lasted four issues spanning 1984 and 1985, and featured the work of such Red Circle alumni as Rick Buckler, Dick Ayers, Chic Stone, Joe Giella and Rich Margopoulos.

Inset near right are two of the Mighty Crusaders action figures, which were relased simultaneous to the 1980s’ Red Circle Comics line. Far right is ManTech Robot Warriors #3 [Feb. ’85], licensed from the same toy manufacturer as the action figures, Remco. The series ran between ’84–’85.

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The Mighty Crusaders Action Figure Line

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4 Dick Ayers An Interview with Creator Chat

Conducted by Bradley S. Cobb [Editor’s Note: Dick Ayers (April 28, 1924—May 4, 2014) is perhaps best known for his work at Marvel Comics in the late-1950s and 1960s, and as one of Jack Kirby’s inkers on some of the earliest issues of Fantastic Four. He was a key artist on the Bronze Age revivial of the MLJ super-heroes.] Bradley S. Cobb: Did you know about these characters before you were asked to participate in the Red Circle/Archie Adventure series project? Dick Ayers: No. BSC: Did you get any story input on the Shield stories you drew, or did you just go straight from the scripts done by Mr. Greim? Ayers: Straight from Martin’s scripts. BSC: Having also drawn some other titles for this company (Mighty Crusaders being one), did you find one character being harder to draw than others? Ayers: No, I enjoyed it all. BSC: Do you have any insight on why the Mighty Crusaders series (and its related titles) was cancelled? Ayers: Probably declining sales. BSC: Had you drawn any more stories for the Archie Adventure line that never saw print? Ayers: An Original Shield story. BSC: What was it like to follow in Steve Ditko’s footsteps, taking over the art chores on The Fly at issue #9 (which happened to be the final issue)?

Ayers: Very interesting, for he had inked Sgt. Fury #15 and I had inked an “Iron Man” he penciled. BSC: How was Rich Buckler as an editor? Ayers: Rich was terrific... he hired me to do the Crusaders. BSC: Martin Greim said to me that your art was “great” when you were really “into a project”, and that you were into the Archie Adventure stuff you did. What are your thoughts on that, and how was Martin Greim to work with as a writer? Ayers: I like Marty very much, and enjoyed illustrating his scripts so much, I asked him to collaborate with me on a newspaper strip I had created and was trying to sell. At top is a 1975 photo of Dick Ayers by Sam Maronie. ©2016 Maronie Creative Services LLC. At left is detail from The Original Shield #1 [Apr. ’84]. Art by Dick Ayers (pencils) and Tony DeZuñiga (inks). Next page, from the same art team, is from Mighty Crusaders #3.

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4 Bill DuBay

An Interview with Creator Chat

Conducted by Bradley S. Cobb [Editor’s Note: Comics writer, artist and editor William Bryan “Bill” DuBay (Jan. 11, 1948–Apr. 15, 2010) was not only an avid comics reader as a teen, but a creator of comics as well. A contributor to the Komix Illustrated fanzine in the early 1960s, DuBay made his first professional sales to Charlton and Marvel Comics before the decade was over. A long association with Warren began in the ’70s and lasted into the ’80s. The ’80s found DuBay bouncing between assignments for Heavy Metal, Pacific Comics, and Marvel Animation, as well as a brief stint for Red Circle as a writer on The Comet and Blue Ribbon Comics, as well as editor on The Comet and The Black Hood.] Bradley S. Cobb: What was your first introduction to the Mighty Crusaders? Bill DuBay: I was an avid comic collector in the ’60s when The Mighty Crusaders first appeared. I liked the idea of the Archie Group delving into costumed heroes and thought they’d do as credible a job with the group as they’d been doing with The Adventures of the Jaguar and The Fly—two titles I enjoyed. Can’t say I was really impressed with The Crusaders, though. More than anything else, Paul Reinman’s art was a turn-off. The idea of these great old characters teaming really captured my imagination. BSC: Did you choose The Comet, or was the job given to you? DuBay: When Archie revived the Red Circle line in the early ’80s, I had no intention of working for the company. I was editing several titles for Western (Popeye, Turok, Yosemite Sam, and others), working on a title for Pacific Comics (Bold Adventure) that would keep a few of my old Warren artists busy, and had 188

teamed with two partners to open a new magazine company (Ion International) with the intent of producing Videogaming Illustrated and Chocolatier magazines, a couple of monthly newsstand titles. Carmine Infantino and I were also collaborating on several new ideas for DC, as well—one a title that company later used without us: Preacher. If memory serves, I might even have still been working with Warren. All this while still running my art studio, the Cartoon Factory. I was keeping busy. BSC: How’d you get hooked up with Red Circle? DuBay: When Richard Buckler, recently-appointed editor of the Red Circle line, called to speak with his sister Peggy, to whom I was married—I was surprised to hear, at the end of their conversation, that he wanted to speak with me. While friendly, we never really had much to do with each other—both of us too interested in our own paths. He told me that he’d been having trouble with one of his titles— The Comet. No one quite seemed to know how to handle the Above is an uncredited Bill DuBay photo from the later 1990s. At left is a panel detail from the Mr. Justice story, “Blood Tide,” which another Red Circle editor, Robin Snyder, has said he scripted the first half of, and DuBay completed. From Blue Ribbon Comics #2, with art by Von Eeden and Niño. Next page is a panel from The Comet #1 [Oct. ’83].

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Bill DuBay Interview

character’s revival. He asked if I’d like to give the script a shot. I agreed, did a little research on the character, sat down, wrote and had twenty-odd pages to him in the next day or so. Though The Comet probably wouldn’t have initially been my first choice, had I been given one, once I’d learned that the original series had been created by Jack Cole, my enthusiasm grew. BSC: Did you choose the art team for the book? DuBay: My reputation apparently had preceded me at the Red Circle offices. When I walked in with my script, publishers Richard Goldwater and Michael Silberkleit took me aside and asked if I’d be interested in editing the Red Circle line. I have to say that I was honored, but shocked. When they told me they were unhappy with the way Richard was handling their comics (specifically, their deadlines), I explained to them that I’d have my own troubles at home (not to mention in my other endeavors) if I suddenly took over his position. I told them I could help them with any title they felt was in trouble, but that I’d have to decline editorship of the entire line, for all of the aforementioned reasons. I left the offices that day helming two titles: The Comet and The Black Hood. Hood’s assignments were already in the pipeline, but I knew there was one artist I had to have in the book: Alex Toth. I went home, called him, Carmine, Alex Niño, and Rudy Nebres, asking all of them to join me at Red Circle. All enthusiastically agreed and I knew I had a pretty reliable stable of pros who would make my job as writer/editor not only easy, but thoroughly enjoyable. BSC: Why did the book only last two issues? DuBay: I joined the company pretty late in the game. A lot of deadlines had apparently been missed, a lot of money apparently misspent. It was clear to see from the start that Goldwater and Silberkleit were unhappy with costs and results. They were used to fairly low overhead for their Archie titles, and these new super-hero books, they felt, simply weren’t worth their efforts. I got a call from Michael [Silberkleit] (I worked out of my Connecticut studio and never maintained an office at the Archie offices) one morning, telling

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me that he was sorry, but he and Richard [Goldwater] had decided to discontinue the Red Circle line—that “it just isn’t worth the expense.” BSC: What was your role in issues #2 and #3 of The Black Hood? DuBay: As I said, most of the assignments had already been made prior to my joining the company. I did want to give Alex Toth the opportunity to work on any of the old MLJ characters he pleased, however. He selected “The Fox” and it seemed as though it would be the perfect back-up series for The Black Hood. I thought the second issue of The Comet was a nice commentary on certain things, and overall was a very moving plot. As with anyone, there are certain topics that hit close to home. Comics may not be the best medium in which to address them all, but in the case of the Comet and his brother, the Hangman, I was given an opportunity to address issues that seemed to fit into the title’s continuity quite nicely. I would have loved the chance to work more with the DC characters to further explore the personal and psychological ramifications of cavorting about as a costumed hero. Unfortunately, the powersthat-be at DC never went out of their way to make me feel very welcome. BSC: I have been told that there was a different cover planned for

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the second issue of The Comet. DuBay: Sorry, I don’t remember any other cover for issue #2 of The Comet than the one that was used. It’s possible that I’ve forgotten, but to my best recollection, what was published was what was scheduled all along. BSC: What was planned for issues #3-6 of The Comet? DuBay: It’s been almost twenty years since those stories were plotted and written, so it’s hard to remember specifics, but I do recall that I was planning for both of our heroes Comet and Hangman, to hang up their tights and follow more realistic directions in life. I think you’ll find that in any good story, there’s usually a hint or two of the ending dropped into the opening. In page two or three of The Comet #1, I think you’ll find John Dickering expressing his desire to hang up his mask and cape. Certainly, his nephew, Steve, the new Hangman, made a much better doctor than costumed vigilante. I knew the idea of losing

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a valid character license (or two) wouldn’t go over well with Michael and Richard, but etching definitive endings into a character’s history seemed to me then, as now, a far more graceful way of ending a title than having it canceled because of slipping sales (or a publisher’s lack of interest). BSC: Did it include Steve Dickering taking over full-time as the Hangman? DuBay: Yes, Steve would have continued on as the Hangman— only long enough to feel for himself the pressures and frustrations his father felt as that same costumed vigilante. He would have begun taking his frustration out on his love interest Lori, realized that he was more like his father than he’d ever want to admit—then continue on in his role as a full-time doctor specializing in helping abused youth. Probably predictable, but I anticipated having a lot of fun getting there working with Carmine, Alex, Rudy and Adam (Kubert).

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BSC: Some have speculated that the Comet introduced in the ’60s was supposed to be like a Barry Allen/Flash revamp character, with no real ties to the original. Were you going to touch on this at all? DuBay: Actually, I thought I had touched on it in the first issue. The storyline recaps the character’s origin, his early Jack Cole created adventures in Pep Comics and takes him to a distant planet and back again like, I believe, the ’60s Comet. I may not have used that awful ’60s costume, but the continuity was all there. It really didn’t feel it was my place to stray from what had been established before, whether I liked it or not. BSC: And please tell me you were going to explain his ’60s costume as being some mental problem he was going through! DuBay: Okay—so the ’60s costume was the one part of the continuity we ignored. BSC: Any idea why the Red Circle line was all at once changed to Archie Adventure Series? DuBay: I seem to remember Michael mentioning that the Archie character license was far more profitable and valuable than the Red Circle franchise and that it was better to direct focus rather than spread it about uselessly.

BSC: Any comments on the line after your departure from there? When it quit being Red Circle, the continuity went out the window… badly! DuBay: You know, there was a wonderful, intelligent, articulate gentleman at Archie who didn’t give a damn about continuity. He even felt, I believe, that fans’ overindulgent attention to continuity was one of the many things that were making comics virtually unreadable for the masses. I agreed then and continue to agree with his thinking. His name is Robin Snyder and, if given the opportunity, he could have breathed new life into the comics industry. He was Dick Giordano’s assistant at DC for a time, took over my books at Western Publishing, worked with Stanley Harris on his early Warren-inspired efforts, and did more for the Archie Adventure comics than he’ll ever be credited with. It was my pleasure to work with him on both the published and unpublished adventures of Red Circle’s Mr. Justice title and I would have loved to have seen him given even more latitude— especially at DC. He’s one of those rare, right-thinking individuals that would only have improved everything he touched in any medium in which he chose to work. Like him, I’ll take a good story over rigid continuity any time.

Previous page features a house ad that used an interior full-pager by penciler Trevor von Eeden and inker Alex Niño, from Blue Ribbon Comics #2’s [Nov. 1983] Mr. Justice story. Across the bottom of the spread are panels from The Comet #2 [Dec. ’83]. Art by Carmine Infantino (pencils) and Alex Niño (inks). Above biography from Vampirella #15 [Jan. ’72].

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4 Stan Timmons An Interview with Creator Chat

Conducted by Paul Castiglia [Editor’s Note: Stan Timmons got his start as a DC Comics writer, scripting their horror title Secrets of Haunted House. When Red Circle Comics launched, Stan was there at the beginning working on Lancelot Strong, the Shield. Stan also contributed to The Fly and The Fox at Red Circle.] Paul Castiglia: How did you come to write for Red Circle Comics? Stan Timmons: I was writing for DC Comics at the time. Pretty much any book that had Ghost or Mystery in the title, chances are I was writing for it. Rich Buckler had just been appointed editor in chief of the Red Circle line and he contacted me and asked if I’d like to write for them. I should point out Rich helped get me in at DC, and knew I’d rather be writing super-hero stuff, so there wasn’t much convincing involved. PC: Had you previously encountered the MLJ/Mighty Comics heroes before getting the job? Timmons: Somewhat. My brother had a few issues of The Jaguar and The Fly when I was a kid, and I’d occasionally find them on the spinner rack at one of the

local drugstores. I remember Black Hood was a favorite of mine, and then Mighty Crusaders, but distribution was pretty spotty around here in those days. PC: You worked on the Lancelot Strong version of the Shield. How did it feel to work on a character created by legends Simon and Kirby? 192

Timmons: Intimidating! I think [Rich Buckler and I] both decided we had to be respectful of the source material, but we also had to do something to put our own stamp on it. There’s always the risk of being too reverential to what came before, and then you end up frozen in time, like a museum piece. But a lot of what Simon and Kirby established for the character still works as well now as it did then, give or take a tweak. PC: You co-wrote several stories with your editor, Rich Buckler. What was it like to be edited by Rich, as well as to write with him? Timmons: I learned a lot about storytelling from working with Rich. I learned to trust the art to move the narrative forward, and not rely on word balloons and captions all the time. Rich approaches everything very cinematically, as you can tell from his art. We’d have long discussions about films we’d seen, and we’d try to use the artwork to mirror the subtext of the story. There was actually a lot going on underneath the surface of the stories. For instance, there was a Fly story that was about greed and excess, so we had things At top is a recent photo of Stan Timmons lensed by Jennifer Lahr. At left is a detail from Blue Ribbon Comics #14 [Dec. ’84], with art by Lou Manna (pencils) and Chic Stone (inks). Next page features a Jim Starlin Captain Marvel swipe from that same issue.

The MLJ Companion

Stan Timmons Interview

like a speeding car, and a glass of water being overfilled. I don’t know if anyone else caught them, but we knew they were there. I always thought Rich would have made a brilliant film director. PC: One of your Lancelot Strong stories featured the character the Red Sun, a Japanese super-agent from World War II freed from suspended animation. How much “nudge-nudge, winkwink” were you and your editor employing, and what special touches did you add to differentiate the character from its more well-known counterpart? Timmons: That was based on something I’d seen in the newspapers, about a Japanese soldier who’d been left behind on some little island, and he didn’t know the war had been over for years. I think it was unspoken but understood between us that we were giving a nod to a certain other super-soldier, going up against yet another Simon and Kirby super-soldier. PC: You worked on several stories featuring the Fox. What is it you like about that character, and how did you approach writing it? Timmons: I liked everything about writing that one. We also had the kung-fu angle, which we both loved. Rich knew considerably more about it than I did, but I decided if I was going to write about a character who uses the martial arts, I’d better learn what I was trying to do, so I did a lot of reading. We were also trying to inject some eastern philosophy into the stories, so we had a little more than just a fight story. PC: One of my favorite stories is “The Killing Hour” from Blue Ribbon #14. How can you go wrong with a story that mixes alleged vampires, a commuter ferry and a nuclear submarine? Was it your idea to team the Web and the Jaguar for that tale? Timmons: That one was Rich all the way. I either didn’t

remember or didn’t realize the two heroes were related by marriage, but when Rich suggested the pairing, it seemed a natural. It gave the characters a little more of a reason to team up, and also allowed for some of the bickering that only family members can do. PC: “The Killing Hour” boasted a villain named the Freelancer. Was that a comics industry in-joke, or did it just seem like the perfect name for this foe and his modus operandi? Or was it a little bit of both? Timmons: I don’t remember naming that character at all, so it was probably Rich. Coming up with a good name was always difficult, even back then. Rich has a sly sense of humor, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it was meant as an industry in-joke. It’s certainly appropriate. PC: The use of actual, real-life landmarks is always fun in a comic book story. In “The Killing Hour,” the Staten Island Ferry gets some play. Did you do special research to ensure accuracy? Timmons: I researched what I could whenever possible, but for this one, Lou Manna, who lives on Staten Island and who also drew the story, knew the Ferry well, so I got to duck all responsibility on that one. PC: You got to employ two of the original Mighty Crusaders’ villains from the Silver Age, the Brain Emperor and The Eraser, in your tales. Did you consult the 1960s issues for reference on these

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tell Ditko what to draw?” My first script for Ditko was “perhaps we could show such and such,” and Rich called me and said, “You have to be more decisive. You can’t be wishy-washy. This is your story, too.” And he was right. I wasn’t doing Ditko or myself any good by waffling on like that, so the next script was fine. He was a joy to work with. He understood exactly what I wanted and gave it to me. I sent him a letter once, just to tell him how big an honor it was to have worked with him, but I never heard back. I’m sure he’d forgotten all about me by then—reality imitating art there, just like the Fox not remembering Martial Law, but fortunately, not quite as humiliating. PC: What was your overall reaction to the way your stories were rendered? Apart from Ditko, did you have any other favorite artists? Timmons: I was just thrilled to be allowed to sit at the grown-ups table. All of the artists were great. I was pleased to have worked with Tony DeZuñiga, and got the chance to tell him so many years later (he remembered me).

characters, and in what ways did you try to flesh them out? Timmons: I hadn’t read any stories with those two villains, or I’d forgotten them if I did. Rich suggested them, but I don’t think he had much more to go on than I did, so it was fairly easy to flesh them out, since they were essentially cyphers. Our big thing was to try to humanize even the bad guys, to make them a little more believable and sympathetic. World domination’s all very nice, but it doesn’t give you much to talk about at the family dinner table that night. We did something like that with Martial Law, a cheap thug who’d been soundly beaten by the Fox many years earlier. He spent all those years afterwards, letting the humiliation grow, so he trained non-stop in the martial arts, just for a rematch, and when the time came, the Fox couldn’t remember ever having fought him before. PC: One of your stories (“Faithfully Yours” from The Fly #3) was drawn by Steve Ditko. What was your reaction to having such a legend draw one of your stories? Timmons: Well, Steve is a legend, so I was nervous about it. He’d illustrated a couple of my stories at DC, although when I wrote them, I had no idea who would draw them. This time, I knew it was Ditko, and I thought “What am I doing here? Who am I to Top is a page from the Stan Timmons/Steve Ditko collaboration, “Faithfully Yours,” a Fly-Girl story that dealt with celebrity stalking [The Fly, Oct. ’83]. At right is Timmons’ creation, the Red Sun, featured in Lancelot Strong, The Shield #2 [Aug. ’83]..

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PC: Did you write any stories for the Red Circle heroes that never saw print? Timmons: There were a few. The sudden change in leadership at Red Circle was a complete muddle. Part two of the Red Sun storyline was written and turned in, but what appeared bore no resemblance to what we’d intended. There were some Fly-Girl scripts that were written, and a Fox story that would have been illustrated by Toth, as I recall. I don’t know how far any of them got, production-wise. PC: Were there any characters you wish you had written? Timmons: Mighty Crusaders. I pretty much wrote them, one at a time in their individual strips, but I would have liked to have written the book, just once. I can’t really complain too much. I was eventually able to work with Stan Lee on his first novel, and with Jim Steranko on Prevue, so I’d have to say I’ve been pretty lucky.

The MLJ Companion

Fox in Archie’s Henhouse Alex Toth’s edgy take on the MLJ/Red Circle hero by Paul Castiglia [Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Comic Book Marketplace Yearbook 2014–15, from Gemstone Publishing.] It was the late 1980s. I was a year or so out of art school. I knew I didn’t have the chops to be a comic book artist, but I was determined to become a writer and/or editor of comics. I started researching all the nearby companies, including Archie. I bought up a bunch of Archie comics and digests for reference, and was perplexed by a few one-page, full panel drawings contained in some of the digests. The drawings showed superhero characters I hadn’t recalled ever seeing before. They weren’t doing anything other than touting literacy and their own existence, but that was enough for me—I was entranced and hooked! Soon thereafter, I had an opportunity to visit a store deep in back issues—basically a warehouse with more comics than I’d ever seen before! I sought out the comics featuring the characters I saw in the digest public service announcements and left the store with a precariously bulging armful. Among them were a few issues of a character called The Black Hood. I snatched them up because I recognized the artist’s signature on the cover: Alex Toth! While I was disappointed that the title character did not feature in accompanying Toth stories inside the covers, the Golden Age MLJ character the Fox (think a lily-white version of Marvel’s Black Panther and you’ll get the drift) did appear as a back-up, resplendent in a fabulous fury of colorful Toth art and prose. I had been enjoying Toth for years when I was Above is Alex Toth’s stunning splash page for his Fox story in The Black Hood #2 [Aug. ’83]. At left is a 1987 Toth self-portrait.

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a kid, but I didn’t know it. I’d seen his designs in such classic Hanna-Barbera animated fare as the 1967 Fantastic Four, Space Ghost, Birdman, and Super Friends. As a kid, I didn’t immediately make the connection that these designs all came from the same artist’s pencil. It was in the Justice League of America Limited Collectors’ Edition [#C-46, Aug. 1976] where I first encountered Toth’s name. In addition to classic JLA reprints, the oversized 1976 edition featured Super Friends model sheets drawn by Toth himself ! Seeing those model sheets blew my mind, because included in the images were shots of Plastic Man (who made one guest-appearance on Super Friends). Even then, Plas was my favorite super-hero, having been introduced to the looooooooong arm of the law via Jules Feiffer’s essential book The Great Comic Book Heroes… the seminal work that also included Will Eisner’s legendary The Spirit. If it sounds like I’m backing into some connection between Toth, The Fox, Toth’s past work, and the work of his influences, you’re right. Toth only did two Fox stories to my knowledge. But what stories! In the initial, untitled Toth Fox tale from The Black Hood #2 [Aug.1983], we see both an artist wearing his influences on his sleeves as well as one enjoying the freedom of working on a nonComics Code title. In the early days of the Red Circle line, the comics were distributed exclusively to comic shops. Eventually, the line would be rechristened the Archie Adventure Series and join Riverdale’s fabled teens at traditional newsstand outlets. But in the beginning… well, Toth got to go whole hog on hardboiled, yet fun (and naturally funny… not forced) tales. Toth infused

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as many elements from film noir movies and the classic Cole Plastic Man and Eisner Spirit tales as possible. From a non-Code perspective, he peppered the dialogue with “hells” and “damns” not usually seen in mainstream superhero comics (though never feeling gratuitous), as well as themes more adult (such as adultery) than typically found in standard action-adventure comics fare. The film noir movie Toth’s initial Fox tale most resembles is 1944’s Murder, My Sweet, starring Dick Powell, itself an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s famous Philip Marlowe mystery novel, Farewell, My Lovely. The story has proved venerable—two years prior to Murder, My Sweet, the plot was cherry-picked and shoe-horned into a George Sanders-as-the-Falcon entry called The Falcon Takes Over; while a 1975 version, starring Robert Mitchum, finally used Chandler’s original title. In all cases, the stories feature a big lug/ex- (possibly current-) felon named Moose Malloy, who employs the hero to locate his sweetheart, who may or may not want him back. In Toth’s story, we get Cosmo Gilly, exprizefighter with the implication of underworld ties. Those inferences come clear in a very funny “intro” scene where photo-journalist Paul Patton 196

(secret identity of the Fox) is “welcomed” by Cosmo via a fist to the face, credited by Cosmo as being courtesy of one Petey Bosco “from the Chicago mob Boscos.” Cosmo swears no hard (personal) feelings—just that Petey is still plenty sore that Paul’s photos helped land Petey in the pen! There are several scenes where Cosmo punches out would-be-assassins, as well as accidentally (and comically) KO’ing Patton an additional time or two. While the story echoes the Chandler tale in that the hero takes pity on the big lug and agrees to help him, it’s the Eisner Spirit and Cole Plastic Man influence that infuses the humorous interactions between Patton and Cosmo, giving their alliance a unique freshness that ultimately ends in friendship. At just eight pages, the denouement is easy to telegraph—Cosmo’s “brudder” and manager made some healthy investments for the punchy pugilist… and made some unhealthy advances on Cosmo’s wife! Needless to say, the philandering filly teamed with her conniving brotherin-law/lover to see if they could reap a windfall from Cosmo’s life insurance policy. Still, it’s the journey that counts here. The MLJ Companion

In addition to the Chandler/Cole/Eisner story influences, and humor/characterizations owed to Cole and Eisner, this first Fox tale is highly stylized (its exotic Morocco locale, in particular, putting it in Spirit territory), with terrifically exaggerated caricatures, and gloriously colored in bright color schemes evoking the best of the Spirit and Plastic Man comics. It’s Toth the idealist that turns up in the following issue’s Fox tale, “The Most xxxxxxxx Man in the World”? (from The Black Hood #3 [Oct. 1983]). Those who followed Toth knew that he was an outspoken interview, someone who made his work about the art/ story first (and took those fellow practitioners who didn’t to task), but who also didn’t suffer big business’ treatment of “the little guy” kindly, either. It seems only natural that Toth would concoct a tale whose protagonist drew his main influence from Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American inventor, father of electromagnetics and showman who rivaled Thomas Edison in his day, but whose inventions fell into obscurity for many years thereafter, leading to speculation that some may have been suppressed by government agencies or private businesses whose livelihoods could be threatened by the technological advances. Toth tips his hand from the get-go, starting with the odd title of the story which has an entire, undecipherable word crossed out. He tips it further by presenting his protagonist full-figured on the first page, lanky-armed and lankier-legged, with a long pear-shaped torso, chicken-neck, Ross Perot ears, pursed lips, squinted eyes, and furrowed brow. The man is a walking contradiction: he looks frail and ornery all at once, and Toth further confounds his readers’ abilities to know whether to sympathize with the character or not by saddling him with the name Otis Dumm. Toth also makes great use of the Texas “backroads” locales and This spread represents some of virtuoso comic book artist Alex Toth’s exemplary work on a mere two Fox back-up stories (as well as some dynamite covers for the hosting title, The Black Hood). The tales’ influence is still being felt by artists to this very day.

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the colorful locals who populate it, to give an extra sense of urgency to the tale while adding an unexpected layer. It’s almost as if Toth knew his Dumm character would be so confusing and polarizing to readers that he had to acquiesce to his choice of locale: though the story was set in the 1940s, Texas itself hearkened back to the days where the good guys wore white and the bad guys wore black… enabling Toth to cast what some readers may consider a reactionary anti-hero in resplendent hero garb and win naysayers over to his (both Toth’s and Dumm’s) cause. The plot of this one is less involving and more episodic than Cosmo’s story, yet also much more action-packed. A chance meeting with Dumm at a gas station puts the paranoid man in Patton’s care, and it’s a good thing, too, as nefarious thugs are after Dumm. Turns out the old man has invented a fuel-less motor that runs on electromagnetics, whose very existence would make current motors obsolete! Everyone wants it… so they can bury it and continue to have their businesses prosper. It’s a much more densely scripted entry than its predecessor—particularly in the dialogue department—and yet it still works because, once everyone’s sympathies are with Otis, there’s no turning back. While overall Toth’s art is less exaggerated in this outing, he adds an extra special touch not present in the previous tale: the Fox’s totally white eye slits in his mask (like the Phantom or Batman) are altered as needed to convey expressive reactions. The effect is more akin to the white eyes on Spider-Man’s mask, leaving the reader to wonder whether they are really “slits” at all. It’s an effective choice that heightens the entertainment value of the story. While Toth’s contribution to the Fox only lasted two stories with a total of 20 pages, the influence of the stories lives on in Archie’s new Fox stories published under its modern-day Red Circle imprint. Regular series collaborators Dean Haspiel and Mark Waid, along with such guest cover artists as Paul Pope and the late Darwyn Cooke, haven’t been shy in citing Toth’s influence on their own Fox work.

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INTERLUDE Descent into Darkness

The Watchmen/Dark Knight effect on super-heroes by Jon B. Cooke

mind you, was squeaky-clean, industry front-runner DC Comics!

You can’t really blame just Alan Moore and Frank Miller. Grim and ultra-violent super-heroes, akin to those that arose from the pages of Moore’s Watchmen and Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, were all the rage in the early years of the comic book industry. In those days of the Golden Age, costumed characters would, when the spirit moved them, casually quash the lives of their adversaries. In mid-flight, Superman dropped bad guys to certain death. Batman carried a pistol to unhesitatingly seal the doom of his enemies. The Spectre quite literally scared villains into their graves. And this,

Over at the lesser-known imprints, lethal retribution was also doled out by masked vigilantes, often with positive glee, whether the Black Terror touting a Thompson submachine gun or the Human Torch deliberately burning bad guys to death. And, of course, MLJ Comics had their own quintessential purveyor of capital punishment, the Hangman, brother of the liquidated Comet, who vowed over his sibling’s still warm corpse, “I will carry on for him… I’ll bring his murderers to the hangman! I’ll be their hangman!” Between 1941–44, young readers devoured his exploits. By the Silver Age, long after MLJ adopted the name of Archie Comic Publications, avenging super-heroes were prohibited from killing and justice was typically limited to a mere prison sentence for wrong-doers. In fact, Archie head honcho John Goldwater spearheaded the Comics Code Authority, which dictated the constraints and, in result, the characters could be downright boring. But, by the ’80s, due to declining newsstand sales and advent of the direct market, publishers saw an opportunity for content that targeted a readership with an appetite for greater mayhem, one outside the purview of the Comics Code. Archie jumped on board, eschewing (not without irony) the CCA stamp of approval on the Red Circle Comics Group line. And while the books edited by Rich Buckler and Robin Snyder were pretty tame, those helmed by Bill DuBay seized the opportunity and presented some awfully gruesome tales in The Comet, Black Hood, and Blue Ribbon Comics. It is curious that DuBay, former editor of the Warren Publications line of black-&-white comics magazines, would be selected by the publisher known for its innocuous, wholesome fare. His nearly thirty issues of the science-fiction title 1984 (at the request of the Orwell estate renamed 1994 by #11), were widely reviled as exceedingly violent, misanthropic, and misogynistic to the extreme. (The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide opines, “This really is a foul series, reeking with hatred and resentment for women and sex — and apparently convinced these attitudes are normal and universal.”) Warren had also been reportedly subject to a financially devastating plagiarism suit under the editor’s tenure. Keep in mind, though, in 1983, Archie had only just ceased to be a public company and was once again under family control, as the sons of retiring MLJ founders Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater took over the company to bring it home. “One of their first decisions,” The New York Times reported, in 2012, “was to regain control of its stock… They bought it all back, each controlling 50 percent. Richard H. Goldwater was president, Michael I. Silberkleit was chairman, and they shared the title of publisher.” Writer/editor Bill DuBay, late of the Warren Publications’ editorial office, brought the Red Circle title, The Comet, in a startingly mature direction, in stories that discussed the meaning of heroism and taking on such important issues as child abuse. The next page features the Winner’s Circle newsletter sent to comic shops to promote Red Circle.

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Though familiar with the teenage humor books, the contemporary super-hero scene was new territory for the partners (as seen in the earlier situation with John Carbonaro). Alluding to the collecting mentality so prevalent then (as now) in comics fandom, editor DuBay was explicit in his reaching out to a more mature audience. As he wrote in an essay: This, the first issue of The Comet, is only one of an entire wave of comic books currently being produced for the new audience of adolescent-American speculators. It has neither been written or illustrated for children. No child could fully appreciate the emotional turmoil that’s an integral part of the characters to be found in these pages. It has been produced with loving care in the hope it will be read, understood and enjoyed, and not simply stored at the bottom of some dark closet, until the sad day when the unwanted commodity becomes a musty antique.

Despite lasting only two installments of a planned six-issue run, The Comet (headlining a character who referred to himself as a “ruthless, cold-blooded butcher!”) might’ve been violent, but it was also a well-written, complex parable about the very nature of the super-hero, which writer DuBay infused with relevant topics. “One unexpected element,” writes The Comics Journal reviewer Dale Luciano [#88, Jan. ’84], “strongly foreshadowed in the first issue, is the emergence of the child-abuse theme which—considering how the subject might have been exploited by a number of writers—is handled with unusual care and insight.” The critic adds, “More’s the pity the four other planned issues of this series have been cancelled due to a drastic overhaul of Red Circle’s marketing strategy.” In fact, publishers Goldwater and Silberkleit nixed the entire Red Circle imprint, folding the line-up under the “Archie Adventure Series” banner and, hoping to boost tepid sales by adding newsstand distribution, the books had to submit to the increasingly muted authority of the Comics Code to earn their stamp of approval. Whether DuBay’s decidedly worldly and ambitious stories, quite the contrast to the Riverdale gang’s antics, proved a factor in the change is open to speculation, but during the unforeseen transition, DuBay was fired and his books, Black Hood and The Comet, were axed. We’ll never know if The Comet would, had the half-dozen chapters been produced, become an epic configuration of the The Red Circle Heroes of the ’80s

super-hero mythos in a realworld context. In the pages of Warrior and simultaneous to DuBay’s musings, writer Alan Moore was radically altering the third-rate British character Marvelman into an arguably unsurpassed treatise on the essence of omnipotent beings, which appeared in America as his renowned opus, Miracleman. It’s also entertaining to surmise that, had the publishers been gifted with the luck or foresight, The Comet may have, in just a few years, earned perennial reprinting. As a collection, might it have earned bookstore shelf space beside two other revisionary superhero sagas, Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, breakout hits of 1986, which have remained in print as bona fide books ever since, prompting both critical and commercial revolutions in the field…? It is, though, understandable to perceive the reluctance of the comics publisher to delve in the gritty oeuvre. Since the mid-1940s, Archie Andrews and crew had made a fortune for the Goldwater and Silberkleit clans, and gold was found less in the comic book shops than in Wal-Mart displays and the properties’ licensing value. They gave the heroes a chance until mid-1985, but found more profit in their revival of girl-friendly Katy Keene (described in ’79 by The New York Times as the “clothes-crazy glamourpuss of the mid-’40s and ’50s, who first appeared in Archie Comics before graduating to her own comic book”). The revived interest in Bill Woggon’s character was due (of all things) to being featured in the window fashion displays of Saks Fifth Avenue in the late ’70s. Back in the direct sales market, the content of super-hero comics was turning decidedly grim. Heavily influenced by Moore’s material and Frank Miller’s respective re-workings of Daredevil and Batman, as well as the diminished power of the Comics Code, the field was in transformation. As the 1990s approached, much of the fantasy elements that gave certain charm to the MLJ characters throughout the decades were decidedly out of fashion. (The closest Archie seemed to get to super-heroes was by publishing a kid-friendly— and highly successful—Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures title under their Archie Adventures imprint.) Publicity stunts and multiple-title “events” became the norm at DC and Marvel, and the age of the creator-as-star, oft to the chagrin of the Big Two, was nigh. The anti-hero, epitomized by the enormous popularity of Marvel’s Wolverine and Punisher, was king, and darkness was descending on the comics realm.

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The Ill-Fated Spectrum Comics Archie hoped to bring back the MLJ super-heroes in the late 1980s with a new imprint called Spectrum Comics, and recruited some of comics’ top talent, including Steve Englehart, Jim Valentino, Len Wein, Michael Bair, Kelley Jones, and Rob Liefeld. Some of the titles planned included The Fly, The Fox, The Hangman, Jaguar, Mr. Justice, and The Shield. Archie eventually cancelled the Spectrum Comics project before a single issue was published. Here, some of the creators involved discuss the evolution and demise of the imprint.

Talking with the artists and writers of the almost MLJ Super-Hero revival of the late 1980s Kelley Jones Conducted by Rik Offenberger [Editor’s Note: Kelley Jones began his career at Marvel with Micronauts, and then moved to DC, bringing a grim gothic style to Deadman, and a memorable turn on Sandman: Seasons of Mist. Kelley next made an impression with Batman, drawing the Elseworlds classic Red Rain, and becoming the cover artist for Batman and Detective Comics during the “Knightfall” event. With inker John Beatty, he is credited with creating one of the most defining versions of Batman ever. Archie Comics was set to launch The Hangman with the superstar artist, and here he explains his experience with the ill-fated project.] Rik Offenberger: How did Archie approach you for the Hangman job? Kelley Jones: I was contacted by Scott Fulop, editor of Archie. He and Len Wein were revamping the book. RO: Was the offer originally just Hangman, or did you get to choose from a list of characters? 200

Spectrum Comics Index THE Fly by Steve Englehart & Michael Bair Late 1980s Unpublished

The Fox by Jim Valentino Late 1980s Discussion only

THE Hangman by Len Wein and Kelley Jones Late 1980s Unpublished

Jaguar by Mark Ellis Late 1980s Discussion only

Mister Justice Late 1980s Discussion only

The Shield by Mark Ellis and Rob Liefeld Late 1980s Discussion only

Jones: They wanted me to do Hangman, after they saw Deadman, which they loved. RO: What made you decide to be part of the Spectrum Comics launch? Jones: I was eager to collaborate with Len and John Beatty. RO: You are an “A-list,” in-demand artist and were associated with several projects when Hangman was announced. Was your schedule free for Hangman? Jones: Nope, but I made time. RO: Had you been a fan of the prior work on the character? Jones: Never saw him before, but the idea and the premise were excellent. RO: How many character designs did you submit for the project? Jones: Just the one for Hangman, which they loved off the bat, and for Kadaver, the book’s bad guy, who was really creepy-looking. RO: How long was it from the time you started on the project and when it was announced? Jones: About three months.

The MLJ Companion

RO: What type of feedback did you get along the way? Jones: All positive, from Scott, Len, and John. They were all very happy with my work. RO: How far along were you on the project when they cancelled the Spectrum line? Jones: I was waiting for the second script. RO: What reason did they give you for the cancellation? Jones: I was told that the orders were far in excess of what was hoped for and they kindly were giving me a lot of the credit for that due to my art. The next week I was told it was cancelled as of then because the art was too horrifying to the publisher, and it was done.

Mark Ellis Conducted by Rik Offenberger [Editor’s Note: Mark Ellis worked as a journalist, newspaper columnist, and copywriter before he became a comic book writer in the mid-1980s for Adventure Publications, including scripting Star Rangers for legendary comics artist Jim Mooney. In 1987, he created Death Hawk, a series that featured the first published work of comics artist Adam Hughes, as well as beginning his long association with the Justice Machine. In 1990, Mark and his wife Melissa co-founded Millennium Publications, serving as the imprint’s editor, giving early exposure to artists Mike Wieringo and Darryl Banks, and published industry veterans Jim Mooney and Don Heck. The couple co-authored The Everything Guide to Writing Graphic Novels, and currently teach writers’ workshops in Newport, Rhode Island.] Rik Offenberger: Mark, would you be willing to talk about your Spectrum Shield? Mark Ellis: Sure… hope I can remember all of the details. I did find my Spectrum proposal for The Jaguar, though. Dot matrix, yet.

RO: This must have been a surprise. Jones: It was. I never thought that a success like that could not be seen for what it was. The point was to compete with Marvel or DC, and they didn’t just do that, they exceeded it.

RO: Was it just the Shield and Jaguar? Ellis: I did talk to the editor about The Web, but I didn’t do a formal proposal for that. The whole Spectrum thing fell apart pretty quickly as I recall.

RO: What happened to all the Hangman art you had completed? Jones: It’s in an Archie flat file I suppose. RO: Do you still have a fondness for the character? Jones: Oh sure, he was great and it was a terrific first issue. Such a shame.

RO: How did Archie approach you to work on the Spectrum Line? Ellis: Jeez... my memories are pretty fragmented on all of this. Seems to me someone suggested I contact the Archie editor, Scott Fulop... it might’ve been Adam Hughes who made the suggestion. Though completed pages of The Hangman #1, the Spectrum Comics title that was abruptly cancelled just before release, likely still exist—probably in the flat files at Archie Comics—the only Kelley Jones (penciler) and John Beatty (inks) artwork for that issue generally seen are the small repos that appeared in Comics Buyer’s Guide #815 [June 30, ’89]. Jones did recently share a photocopy of his character design, as seen above.

The Ill-Fated Spectrum Comics Line

Chapter Five: The Ill-Fated Spectrum Comics

Then they published a promo with a dozen pages or so in Comics Buyer’s Guide and it got a huge positive reaction. They were able to get nearly 400,000 orders for the book.

RO: They asked you to write the Shield, Jaguar and the Web? 201

Ellis: Best of my recollection—and that’s not to say my recollection is reliable—the Archie editor gave me a list of characters he was seeking proposals for. They were The Shield, The Web and The Jaguar. RO: Rob Liefeld was attached to the Shield. Who were they planning as an artist on Jaguar and the Web? Ellis: I don’t recall him saying anything about Rob Liefeld being attached to The Shield... seems to me that the editor told me that the only characters who had been nailed down were The Hangman, The Fly, and maybe the Black Hood. RO: What did you have planned for each of the characters? Ellis: I worked up short proposals for The Shield, The Web and The Jaguar... I worked with Rik Levins on The Shield and The Jaguar to provide some sample art.

Rob, as I remember, wasn’t all that interested, but we hood-winked Scott into taking a look at a proposal from me. BSC: Were you asked to take on The Fox, or did you decide that’s what you wanted? Valentino: No, he was the character I wanted. He was one with the least amount of exposure. BSC: Were you supposed to write or draw it (or both)? Valentino: Never got that far, but I would have preferred to do both. BSC: What was the Fox going to look like in this form? Valentino: Like he always did. Like the Black Panther–completely black costume, maybe with red eyes, I don’t recall.

BSC: What was the story on the Fox that you were going to do (characteriRO: How far did you get before they zation, origin)? canceled the project? Valentino: I don’t recall. I do know Ellis: I sent the proposals in and waited for... I dunno, very definitely that I used my notes on the Fox when I created ShadowHawk, so you could say that this was one of ShadowHawk’s origins. a month. I don’t think I did much more with The Web than maybe talk to the editor. BSC: Do you know of any other titles or creators that were involved— or planned involvement—in the Spectrum Comics world? RO: Did Archie tell you why they were canceling the project? Ellis: When I called the editor he told me the whole imprint idea Valentino: I recall Len Wein and Kelley Jones were going to do the Hangman and that there was one more title lined up, but I don’t was dead... for the time being. I think he may have suggested that recall what it was. down the road Archie might revisit the concept. At least all of that is to the best of my recollection... and not very BSC: Why did the line get cancelled? reliable recollections, I fear. Valentino: I’m not sure. I do know that Scott told us that the publishers saw some of Kelley’s pages and freaked. They had no idea what they were getting into and put a quick Conducted by Bradley S. Cobb halt to it when they found out. I don’t know if that’s true, but that’s what we were told. [Editor’s Note: Jim Valentino began his career in the late 1970s with small press and mostly BSC: Did you have any stories drawn (if you autobiographical comics before creating his were indeed the artist)? And how many were signature character, normalman, in the ’80s. written? In the following decade, Jim joined Marvel Valentino: No, it never got that far. I had Comics as writer/artist on Guardians of the some notes—and the beginnings of a series Galaxy, and thereafter became a founding synopses, but that’s it. partner of Image Comics and serving as its publisher for several years.] BSC: What was your first introduction to the

Jim Valentino

Bradley S. Cobb: What brought you to Spectrum Comics? Jim Valentino: I believe the editor of the line was Scott Fulop. He kept calling the studio for my then studio-mate Rob Liefeld, whom, as I recall, he wanted [Rob] to do The Shield. 202

MLJ heroes? Valentino: The Mighty Comics line of the mid-1960s. They were a train wreck of a company. They were trying to imitate Marvel, without really understanding what Stan Lee was doing. They were trying to emulate the

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Batman TV show, without understanding the satire behind camp. The artwork was just dreadful—stiff, awkward, uninspired. It was like a B-movie; so bad it was entertaining on a very perverse level. BSC: What kind of research did you have to do on the Fox before getting your basic ideas down? Valentino: Research? The character was a poor man’s Batman. All you had to do was take whatever elements you didn’t like about Batman and work with them—it just wasn’t all that deep. BSC: Was the cancelled Spectrum line your only experience with the characters? Valentino: I was involved in another aborted attempt to revive these characters. I was doing some work on the Sonic titles (Sonic SuperSpecial, Knuckles, etc…) and had done the Sonic/Image crossover (Sonic Super-Special #7) when conversations started between myself, Sonic editor F. Justin Gabrie, and Paul Castiglia about reviving the Mighty Crusaders. The idea was to start the series from scratch, using a Batman animation style. Paul would write, I would pencil and co-plot (or something along those lines). The team would have included Steel Sterling (now a Hulk-sized farm boy), a new female Comet (the daughter of the original), Black Jack (whom I thought was lame, but Paul insisted on), the Shield, and the Jaguar (the latter two being the senior members of the team). The publishers didn’t want to do it, having been bitten every time they entered the super-hero arena. I spoke with Justin about the possibility of doing the book through Image, but he didn’t feel they’d go for it as they were still smarting from the Impact line with DC. So, the whole thing was dropped shortly after I became the publisher of Image. The only thing to come of it was a bunch of one-page Origins that appeared in various Sonic comics (I did the Shield’s). So, yet another stillborn revival. BSC: Was this just in a proposal that was worked up? Valentino: There was no written proposal. Again, it had not gone that far. There was a group shot I did in the “animation style”—Paul and I were talking—mostly via e-mail—none of which I’m sorry to say was saved on this end. Like Spectrum before it, this was aborted before it got too far. BSC: By the way, Black Jack has been the character that has had the biggest role in their appearances in Archie’s Weird Mysteries (#3 and #14), so Paul must have a soft-spot for him. Valentino: Yeah, he does—he can’t even say why. :-) BSC: Do you happen to know, off the top of your head, how many, and which of the one-page origins were done/appeared? No one I’ve talked to seems to know for sure, not even Paul himself ! Valentino: No, no clue. I’m sure of the Shield and Black Jack (I think he got a two-pager!)—I dimly recall the Comet (the original), but I’m not sure. You’d have to check the Sonic books circa 1999, I believe. At top of previous page is future Image creator Rob Liefeld’s version of the Shield—Rob had a penchant for drawing patriotic heroes, given his Captain America and Fighting American—and at bottom is a small repro of Dave Dorman and Lurene Haines’ cover painting for The Hangman #1. On this page is the work of fellow Image alumni, Jim Valentino, who was set to write and draw the Fox for Spectrum, but, he recently shared, “I didn’t do any drawings and whatever I wrote is long gone and got absorbed into my initial notes for ShadowHawk,” his Image series. Here is the cover for #3 [Dec. ’92].

The Ill-Fated Spectrum Comics Line

BSC: Did you have any story plans set up for this new Crusaders lineup? Or was it just in the planning stages, and nothing really made out of it for a proposal? Valentino: I remember roughing out two scenes. The first was when the Comet plunged into our dimension on Steel’s farm (it seems his farm was next to some kind of Nexus, and that would have become a story point somewhere down the line) and the other was in the city (NY?) with a giant mechanical spider the group had to bring down. These were just scribbled notations in one of my notebooks, nothing really formal. It really had not gotten to the plot stage. BSC: So, did this aborted try for the Crusaders involve any of their actual comic book history? Or was it where the characters would be the same, but act as if none of the other stuff ever happened, and completely re-introduce them (à la Impact, but with the regular names/costumes/ powers)? Valentino: It was a mixed bag. The Shield was the original 1940s guy, the Comet the original’s daughter, Steel Sterling was new. It really didn’t get far enough where we were considering how to reconcile anything per se as much as introduce. I do know that both Paul and I agreed that Red Circle went wrong with being too continuity conscience and that Impact failed by not having a connection. So we would have probably walked a line between the two. Again, though, you’re talking here about conversations—not much was written down and nothing was finalized. 203

The veteran writer’s script for The Fly #1 In 1989, veteran comic book writer Steve Englehart lent his formidable talents to the ill-fated Spectrum Comics line by offering a daring new take on the Fly. According to Englehart, “The [Spectrum] line was supposed to be a more horror-driven line, and once it was, Archie decided it was too much for their brand. But I very much liked what was done with the concept—particularly Len Wein’s Hangman—as I recall, he strung up evildoers on the street corner. My thing was, becoming the Fly was a death sentence: the inspiring alien who gave Troy his power was lying to him, and it was all a ruse to introduce the Fly virus, and soon the Flies themselves, into our world. Thus, the hero dies at the end of the first issue, but not before touching his girlfriend, who becomes the next Fly… only to die at the end of the second issue. With the third issue, this problem would be realized, and succeeding Flys would struggle to find a solution even as each one died. The overall concept was, individuals would die, but humanity would eventually work it out and turn back the invasion.” Following are the first several script pages of what would have been Spectrum’s The Fly #1. © Steve Englehart.

[PS. That “girl on his arm” is Jenny Sharp, who will be the lead in #2. This issue, tho, she’s just part of Troy’s world.] THE FLY—2 1) [Troy and Jenny start up stairs, so they have a little privacy—they’re both having a good time] TROY:—we won’t get to Pablo’s party till after eleven— JENNY: Course not! I know you’ll be late on game nights— TROY: What I mean is, we don’t have to go! Not really go! TROY: We tell our parents we’re going, but then… 2) [Jenny is not a prude, but she’s not a pushover, either— he’s a nice enough guy that he’s not really put off by her refusal, tho he makes a college try—scene shot from stair level, above and ahead of them, where we see tiny fly buzz under stairs] JENNY: Troy! I told you, I’m not really into that yet…

The Fly #1 Script by Steve Englehart

TROY: How do you know if you haven’t tried it?

THE FLY—1

JENNY: Who says I haven’t tried it? But—

BLURB: Take a look at Troy Thompson! Star forward for the Fordham High basketball squad, rated first in the state! Good-looking, with a good head on his shoulders—and everybody says so!

JENNY: —ooh, it’s just complicated!

BLURB: He’s just the guy you’d pick if you wanted a hero!

JENNY: You know I like you! And it’s not because I think you have AIDS or anything! I just—

BLURB: He just was…

3) [he’s smiling playful, rueful smile at her, as she smiles back]

TITLE: BUZZZ

TROY: I know! Me Tarzan—you Jane! And Janes are different!

CREDITS

JENNY: And don’t you just love it!

[nice heroic poster shot of Troy—6' 3", handsome, his girl on his arm, as they walk through kids along a hall at normal upscale high school—he is everything you imagine about a successful young stud, but not a caricature—not a joke. He is, indeed, a real life hero. The thing is, this heroic scene, we now notice, is the upward view afforded to a fly flitting around in the foreground—that fly’s a second focal point.

4) [down shot of them walking up stairs]

[Whoever you are drawing this—I’m being this detailed because I don’t know who you are yet. I’ll tell you if I see something essential, but otherwise, I’ll let you alone.

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TROY:: Well-l-l, I’m putting up with it! JENNY: So we’ll get to Pablo’s late! That’s okay! Nobody’ll leave till you get there, anyway! TROY: Tell me that— 5) [suddenly, entire side of stairway with Jenny on it crumbles away—she and others fall (but she’s holding Troy’s hand)]

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the stairs have been temporarily braced!

JENNY: »AAAGHH«

BLURB: But the moment hasn’t left Troy’s mind!

TROY: JENNY!! THE FLY—3

GUY: Bye, Troy! Nice rebounding today!

1) [some kids actually fall (there’s another stairway directly below, to next floor down, so the fall is dangerous)— Troy has hold of Jenny’s hand, and she’s hanging in space]

TROY: Thanks, Gare! See ya tomorrow…! 2) [fly buzzes him again] TROY (thot): Mr. Walker says the state inspected those stairs in November!

JENNY: The stairs—! TROY: I’ve got you! TROY: Don’t look down!

TROY (thot): Man, I knew the weight room was helpin’ me out, but holdin’ Jenny today—! It’s true what they say—I didn’t know my own strength!

2) [he pulls her up—it’s tough but he’s strong enough] JENNY: Don’t let me go!

3) [he glares at it as it lands on his locker]

TROY: I’ve got you! Grab the edge! 3) [she gets a knee back on the solid steps he’s on] TROY: There you go! TROY: You’ve got it now! 4) [they and others gape down at hole and débris and hurt people—a barely visible fly buzzes around their heads]

TROY: Damn fly! 4) [he gets into position to whack it, hand and body tensely poised] 5) [whacks it] SFX: WACK! 6) [and pulls his hand back in reaction, hurt by having hit something hard] TROY: »Oww!!«

JENNY: If—if you hadn’t been holding my hand—

THE FLY—5

TROY: That’s what I say—! TROY: Let’s see if we can help anybody else—!

1) TROY: What’d I hit? Something hard—!

5) [fly fills our panel, so we see its bod in veiny detail— again, it’s looking down on Troy and Jenny, who’re oblivious as they hurry off stairs] TROY: These stairs have been here for fifty years! Why would they collapse like that? THE FLY—4 1) [cut to Troy in locker room getting dressed after basketball practice—other guys strolling out, leaving him alone—he responds absently] BLURB: By the time the last classes are done that day, the injured kids have been carted off to hospital or home! By the time basketball practice is done,

The Ill-Fated Spectrum Comics Line

Steve Englehart Charts the Fly’s Course

SFX: CKKUMM!

TROY: The locker handle—? It’s way over there! 2) TROY:And—hell! I even missed the fly! TROY: Get outta here, you stupid bug! 3) [the fly answers him. For clarity’s sake, we will call this insect BUG] BUG: I must finish my mission first! 4) [Troy pulls back a little] TROY: Oh no…!! At top is Michael Bair’s cover rough intended for Spectrum’s The Fly #1, which the writer said owed more to the horror movie than to the Simon & Kirby character.

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BUG: Please attempt to remain calm! I know that this is strange for you, but you were calm upon the stairs today! 5) [Troy gets mad] TROY: This is bogus! BUG: I caused the stairs to fall! Among my powers is that of disintegration! I gauged your strength and character!

BUG: My people would have flown away unscathed! BUG: You believe me now? 5) [Troy pretends to be warily amused] TROY: What kind of powers do you want to give me?

TROY: Who’s doing this?

BUG: Exceptional strength, expanded endurance, the touch of disintegration—enhanced vision and hearing, the ability to walk walls—flight—

TROY: Gare?

TROY: And all I have to do is become a fly, right?

6) [as seen thru bug’s composite eyes—many hexagonal replicas of one picture: Troy half turning, his attention caught]

BUG: No! All powers will adapt themselves to your human form—and you may return to your human form at will!

BUG: I want to give you great power, Troy Thompson! THE FLY—6 1) [Troy still protesting, but he’s more than half convinced now] TROY: My ass… BUG: I are not a fly as you know flies! The strength of my carapace should prove that to you!

6) [interested despite himself] TROY: How do I get these powers? BUG: I will show you—if you are prepared—! 7) [he says…] TROY: …What the hell—! THE FLY—7 1) [bug bites Troy’s hand]

BUG: I come from a separate reality! The drive toward mastery there was taken up by the insects! My people hold the preeminent status given to humans here!

TROY: Ow! You bit me!

2) [angle on bug]

TROY: You’ve poisoned me!

BUG: In truth, we have surpassed your civilization! We have overcome factional strife and created a council of universal justice!

BUG: No!

BUG: In recent cycles, the council has discovered a method for aligning our vibratory senses with different realities, and we have given those worthy of preeminence in other realms the powers granted us!

4) [big panel: the heroic FLY is born—l have little to say about his costume, except that I see it as darkly shining— like the Wally Wood Daredevil costume, which gleamed red among mostly black shadow work. This costume ain’t red— probably blue or green or blue-green—but again, sleek and mostly black. Also, he has fly wings. Here—Fly is regarding his heroic self, as hovering bug talks from the side.]

BUG: I came to find a worthy human— 3) [angle past bug on Troy] BUG:—I found you! TROY: But…nah, this is silly! TROY: This is not real! BUG: “But—?” TROY: …But…what kind of hero hurts innocent kids by collapsing the stairs?

2) [starts to react]

3) [starts to change]

BUG: No… BUG: …I’ve made you the hero you were born to be…! THE FLY—8 1) [swings an arm in majestic power] FLY: I do feel— FLY: —looser!

4) [another two-shot]

FLY: I can move more easily—with more power!

BUG: I am not accustomed to humans! I did not understand the damage I would cause to them!

2) [he readies himself to fly up off the ground]

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FLY: I—

FLY: Fly—!

3) [he rises like a god]

3) [past dead bug at shocked Fly crouching beside him]

FLY: —I can fly!

FLY: He’s dead!

4) [clutches onto top of locker]

4) [Fly stands up, taking it all in]

FLY: No—wait a minute! This has got to be drugs!

FLY: He gave the powers to me—and died!

FLY: I can’t be flying!

FLY: That’s how he transmitted the justice council’s powers!

5) [he takes a wry look at the wall] 6) [jumps to stand sideways on wall, triumphantly] FLY: I’m DOING it!!

FLY: With his life!

1) [he looks around triumphantly but can’t spot bug]

5) [a deathbed vow sequence—this ain’t Bruce Wayne at his parents’ grave, and Fly knows that—knows how weird it is to say this to a dead bug—but at the same time, it’s intensely moving, because it has the same emotion underneath]

FLY: It’s real! You did it, fly!

FLY: Listen, all my life I’ve looked at flies as just—

FLY: I’ve got the powers!

FLY: I mean, a dead fly still looks like something—

FLY: Fly—?

FLY: But I thank you! That’s what I mean to say! I thank you, and I owe you!

THE FLY—9

2) [now he does—his POV—in center is clear pic of dead bug, legs in air, on the bench—surrounding that are smaller, multiple images of same]

6) [heroic shot—Fly is a H.E.R.O.!!…or thinks he is (and so do the readers here)]

BLURB: He looks—and with a suddenness sees—

FLY: I’ll justify your faith in me, and carry on your work!

BLURB: —sees with clarity and precision that surpasses any computer guidance system ever made!

FLY: Dammit! I’ll BE a HERO!! You can purchase Steve’s complete script at www.steveenglehart.com

Editor Scott Fulop Recalls Spectrum (and the PSAs)

“The Hangman was by Len Wein (writer), Kelley Jones (penciler), John Beatty (inker), and Pat Brosseau (letterer),” Fulop said, “and scheduled to be colored by Barry Grossman. The poster, which was also to be the first issue’s cover, was painted by Dave Dorman, who was also slated to paint the covers of the rest of the four-issue mini-series. The Hangman was in reality the supposedly deceased policeman Craig Harden. The man responsible for his death, and the arch-villain of the series was Dr. Creighton Kadaver. Kadaver’s henchmen include ‘Giggler,’ a red haired, freckled psycho — no, not Archie! — and ‘Beef ’(as in ‘a side of ’), a giant of a man, all muscle.

Regarding the public service announcements featuring MLJ heroes included in the imprint’s periodicals, Fulop shared, “Everything was originally created for and printed in the Archie Digests. The first was a two-page spread commissioned by Victor Gorelick and illustrated by Dick Ayers. It contained most, if not all of the MLJ heroes. The concept was just the heroes saying their names and a line like ‘Look for me in upcoming adventures,’ just so Archie Comics could renew the trademarks on the characters. I [also] commissioned [a PSA] from a local artist… [and] inked by Rich Rankin… It was a one-pager drawn horizontally. All the heroes were in a group shot, huddled together. I had the penciler redesign their costumes based on some of my own designs, but the costumes really had nothing to do with any upcoming stories. The purpose here was, again, just for Archie to maintain their trademark ownership.”

“The Fly was written by Steve Englehart, penciled by Mike Bair (Hernandez), scheduled to be inked by Bob Downs and Mike Bair, lettered by Jim Massara, and scheduled to be colored by Barry Grossman. I was still deciding on who would finally do the paintings for all four covers and the poster for this four-issue mini-series.” (There were contemporaneous reports that Rick Veitch was to produce The Fly’s painted covers, though the artist could not confirm when recently asked.)

“I also commissioned a series of one-pagers for most of the top characters,” Fulop said. “They were designed as PSAs. I remember Shield, Black Jack, and others. Amanda Conner did some and Chris Allan did the artwork for at least two. (I remember him adding some copy that made fun of the Shield. The Shield saves the day and prevents a kid from causing a fire, reprimands the kid, and the kid has a thought balloon that reads something sarcastic like, ‘Yeah, right.’ Whatever it was, it was funny, but we had to delete it!)”

Then Archie editor-in-chief Scott Fulop shared about Spectrum, “The concept was to redesign all of the heroes, keeping just their names and concepts, [and] throwing the rest out the window.”

The Ill-Fated Spectrum Comics Line

207

Courtesy of Maggie Thompson, a look at CBG #815 As the entire line was abandoned by Archie Comic Publications before the first issue of the proposed imprint made it to press, very little exists on Spectrum Comics, except for articles in The Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes on the cancellation, and discussion in The Washington Post.

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Comic Buyer’s Guide © Krause Publications.

But, lucky for MLJ super-hero fans, The Comics Buyer’s Guide spotlighted the then-forthcoming Spectrum line as the cover feature in #815, dated June 30, 1989. Included was an article by CBG editor Don Thompson, which included details courtesy of a chat with Spectrum editor Scott Fulop, plus repros of pages from the respective first issues of The Hangman and The Fly, as well as the Dave Dorman/Lurene Haines Hangman #1 cover, and a look at the logos of the two titles mentioned. The piece reveals Spectrum was also considering a team-up book.

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Included in the Comics Buyer’s Guide #815 cover feature on the then-upcoming Spectrum Comics line were pages from The Hangman #1 and The Fly #1, the latter unfinished.

The Ill-Fated Spectrum Comics Line

209

Archie’s fear of hypocrisy—and a moralist backlash by Jon B. Cooke Michael Silberkleit was worried. The country’s mass media was turning its laser-beam focus on the state of the American comic book, an industry going through seismic upheavals during the ’80s, and as both overseer of the Comics Code Authority and co-owner of the field’s third biggest outfit, he believed his peers were risking all by publishing salacious material. “I keep telling my colleagues,” he said in 1989, “‘You guys are going too far.’” It must have felt like 1954 under the Eisenhower administration, when do-gooder reactionaries, intent on “saving” young readers from vile “crime comics,” sought to curtail the industry. And three-and-a-half decades later, under another Republican president, excessive comics again seemed poised to threaten the hygienic Riverdale gang. Michael’s son and company marketing vice president, David Silberkleit, noted, “The values portrayed by Archie and company are remarkably on target for the late ’80s. I think Ronald Reagan had a lot to do with that.” And, as during the days of Ike’s presidency, the critical judgment of the nation’s press zeroed in on the comic book. One significant broadside, among the first volleys of the onslaught, occurred in the spring of ’89, when The New York Times Magazine featured “Drawing on the Dark Side,” a 3,700-word article by Joe Queenan on the often prurient content of contemporary comics. Subtitled “Today’s comic books combine slick art and sadistic sex,” the writer speculated, “In many ways, the comics industry seems to be playing with the same fire that nearly destroyed it in the early 1950s.” To establish a counterpoint, Queenan spoke with the elder Silberkleit, described as president of the “increasingly irrelevant” Comics Code and co-publisher of the “anachronistically wholesome Archie family [which] still manages to earn annual revenues in excess of $13 million.” “I’m always afraid that someone’s going to come down hard on the industry,” Michael said. The reporter went on to write, “Although Silberkleit accuses a small group of writers and artists of foisting their own dark vision of the world on their readers, executives and creators claim they are merely satisfying the appetite of their audience.” The feature, which sparked the attention of the Today show, Larry King Live, and Time magazine—all top media outlets that would cover 210

the debate—concluded with a contrast between the charming and the “slick” and “sadistic”: “Silberkliet’s frothy Archie and Veronica products are a lonely island of juvenalia in a sea of blood. He laments, ‘If you fell to Earth from Mars and picked up a comic book, you would be very disillusioned.’” But the NYT piece failed to mention that Archie was then preparing to lay claim to that less frothy market segment. In Paula Span’s article on the company, “The Squeaky Clean Comics,” in the July 22, 1989, edition of The Washington Post, she reports: As Archie sells to little girls, DC and Marvel have forged into a male market of older teens and adults. While Archie sells primarily through newsstands, a network of 3,500 to 5,500 specialized comic stores around the country cater to the free-spending older audience. These readers aren’t much interested in Betty and Veronica’s shenanigans. The books they favor, some published by small independent presses, often are not submitted for Comics Code approval. It is these more sophisticated, direct-market books that have drawn most of the fire for violence and sexual explicitness (and, in some cases, for sheer irreverence). They are also profitable. “Quite frankly, this is the most lucrative part of the comic industry these days,” says Marvel President James Galton. Two years ago, Silberkleit decided he wanted a chunk of that market. He brought in an editor, a sales manager and artist-writer teams known for their work with DC and Marvel, spending $25,000 by his estimate but anticipating “millions” in revenues. Word of the new series was put out through Comics Buyer’s Guide and at conventions. The covers, which would not carry the Comics Code symbol, would read Spectrum Comics; only very sharp-eyed readers might notice that the address in Mamaroneck was that of Archie Comics.

But due to the media spotlight, “with ‘The Fly’ and ‘The Hangman’ nearly ready to print, comic publishers began to pick up disturbances in the field,” wrote Span. Among those outside agitators was a religious group that was long accustomed to stirring up calls for censorship. “What tipped the scales for Silberkleit, apparently, were the 100 letters to the Comics Code Authority generated by an article in The Citizen, a This Kelley Jones illustration of the Spectrum Comics’ version of the Hangman accompanied The Comics Journal #131 [Sept. ’89] news article about the line’s sudden demise. On the next page is the first page of the TCJ lead feature, written by Greg S. Baisden.

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170,000-circulation newsletter published by an Orange County, Calif., group called Focus on the Family. The group’s vice president of public policy, Tom Minnery, describes it as a family counseling organization with a Christian orientation and ‘traditional values’… The article complained not only of violence and sex, but of comic editors’ anti-authoritarianism, and it provided addresses to write to. One hundred letters constitute heavy mail for the Comics Code Authority, whose address does not appear in comic books. Most of the letters, according to administrator Dudley Waldner, urged stricter interpretations of the code; one writer said he looked forward to meeting Waldner in Heaven.” The “scales” referred to were the decision of whether Archie would move forward with the long-planned Spectrum Comics imprint. Before the controversy, the company had sent out a press release, which described itself as “long known for relatively innocent, Comics Code approved titles such as Archie, Betty and Veronica, and Jughead,” and announced the upcoming revamp “will offer non-Code approved super-heroes and adventure titles in addition to creator-owned comics.” But reactionary forces were now calling for the Authority to impose more stringent regulations on the industry. Thus the scales tipped against Spectrum’s favor. Wrote Span: “I know how easy it is to be damned,” Silberkleit says. “Two things can happen. One is, parents can say, ‘Don’t read those awful adventure books, read these good clean books.’ A lot of other parents out there will just say, ‘Don’t read any comics, they’re bad for you.’” He says that Spectrum Comics would not have been excessively violent, “but you can’t go into that adventure business without some violence.” Worrying about an anti-comic backlash, about tainting Archie’s status as a refuge of gentility, Silberkleit and [Richard] Goldwater junked Spectrum. “I’m not trying to put anybody out of business, I’m not trying to stop anyone,” Silberkleit insists. “I’m just saying I can’t do it with my company.” But his New York PR firm, making sure that the media knew about the change of heart, headlined its press release “Archie Comics Takes a Stand Against Excessively Violent Comic Books.” Elsewhere in the industry, publishers wondered if Archie was merely getting cold feet about entering a market where it has a poor track record. It has tried super-hero books before, “totally unsuccessfully,” points out Marvel’s Galton. “I suspect there’s a fair amount of expediency involved,” says one small publisher, noting that Silberkleit’s scoldings about violence were also helping to promote Archie. But the publisher acknowledges that “just because he’s doing it for probably

The Ill-Fated Spectrum Comics Line

opportunistic reasons doesn’t mean he’s wrong.” Maggie Thompson, co-editor of the 30,000-circulation Comics Buyer’s Guide, which has just featured the Hangman on its cover, is deeply disturbed, however. “It does not bode well for the field that a spokesman for the art form would try to limit that art form,” she says. “And what does this do to the pressure group? It says, ‘Good going, guys, you get the gold star. You put another product out of the reach of people who wanted it.’”

The Comics Journal © Fantagraphics.

The Post article then speculated, “Perhaps one reason Archie Comics can forgo its investment in Spectrum is that it’s pursuing so many other ways to make money. For much of the ’70s and ’80s, the company watched as other comic characters… were exploited to the hilt, turned into movies and series and musicals and merchandise. Now, David Silberkleit vows, it’s Archie & Co.’s turn.”

Span’s piece goes on to describe a litany of licensing proposals, including a live-action feature film projected for 1991 (Archie’s 50th anniversary), greeting cards, children’s backpacks, bedding and apparel, a TV movie, and a Broadway musical. The article concludes, “Thus, without the Hangman or the Fly, but with Veronica’s hair and makeup tips, Archie Comics is poised for more of ‘the same silly antics,’ [David Silberkleit] says. ‘For the next 50 years we’re still looking at the same silly antics.’” Actually in less than half that time—with almost all changes taking place over the last decade—the eternal Riverdale High School students would go through some rather intense and sometimes pitch dark modernization. In 2010, Michael Uslan conceived of “parallel universe” stories of marital life (and strife) for Archie and his two rivals for affection, Betty and Veronica. In the same year, openly gay Kevin Keller (a creation of Dan Parent) joins the gang and, by 2012, gets married and becomes a U.S. senator. In that alternative realm, Archie is actually killed by an assassin’s bullet intended for Senator Keller, a gun control advocate. And, as if the icon’s demise wasn’t enough, Archie and the gang contend with a zombie apocalypse with 2013’s Afterlife with Archie, created by writer Roberto AguirreSacasa and artist Francesco Francavilla. As “parallel universe” titles are still being published, the most monumental change in the long history of Archie occurred in 2015 with a rebooting of the entire teen-humor line, featuring less-cartoony depictions of the kids. Meanwhile, back in 1989, just as Michael Silberkleit announced to the world Archie was pulling the plug on Spectrum, a publisher rang him up, one of his major rivals in the field, very eager to make a deal… 211

INTERLUDE In the House of Superman Archie Comics licenses its super-hero line to a rival by Jon B. Cooke It wasn’t unusual for a publisher to buy properties from old rivals. DC Comics had secured from Fawcett the Golden Age Captain Marvel in the early ’70s, a character whose moth-balling was utterly due to its purchaser after a trademark dispute that put the Big Red Cheese in limbo since the ’50s. And, in 1983, just before shutting down the presses for good, Charlton Comics sold the “Action Heroes” line-up (comprising Blue Beetle, etc.), in a deal set up by its former helmsman, Dick Giordano, by then DC’s managing editor.

During the ’80s, one major consequence of comics publishers’ effort in catering to the direct sales market was, in general, to abandon younger readers, especially those with access only to newsstands. Though Marvel had, for instance, attempted to muscle in on declining Harvey Comics with its sub-imprint, Star Comics, neither of the “Big Two” had made any concerted effort to produce titles appealing to kids interested in super-heroes but put off by the increasingly complex universes and multi-title crossover “events.” By ’87, DC hoped to entice those under age fourteen into the fold. Mike Gold, who was at the time DC’s director of development, told Ryan McLelland, in a 2005 sequart.org article, “DC’s superhero fare was targeted towards readers older than that. It was so severely interlocked—particularly at that time—that younger readers didn’t have the time, the attention span, or the financial resources to get involved in the mainstream super-hero line.” To remedy the situation, Gold huddled with distribution chief Matt Ragone, and, as McLelland reported, “From these discussions, an idea was brought forth to create an ‘entry level’ line of comic books for younger readers that would be available, first and foremost, at newsstands.” But what characters would populate this new line? McLellend writes: Because of the time it would take to build the universe from scratch, the team started to scour older universes that had not seen print for quite a few years. The Gold Key characters, [with] properties like Magnus, Turok, and Doctor Solar, were briefly looked at until DC began to eye the characters from the defunct Tower Comics line. The Tower line, released in the ’60s, held the stable of such characters [as] T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Dynamo and

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Previews © Diamond Comic Distributors.

Licensing popular properties was also quite commonplace in the industry from the very start (think Mickey Mouse, Tarzan, and Star Wars). But it was pretty darn unusual for one publisher to lease an existing competitor’s characters. Yet, by 1989, after the humiliating Spectrum debacle, Archie Comic Publications, Inc., having had its fill of its MLJ/Mighty super-heroes, focused instead on the core teenage humor line (and that franchise’s lucrative licensing revenue). So, when the competition called to inquire about the availability of the Shield and the whole MLJ gang, Michael Silberkleit and Richard Goldwater were quite willing to consider a pitch.

Mentor. As DC pursued the property, they found the characters deeply entrenched in ownership disputes and, because of this, unavailable to be acquired… [and] Gold and his staff eyed another super-hero universe….

In an Amazing Heroes #192 [ July ’91] feature, Mike Gold shared with Sheldon Wiebe that characters already ensconced in the House of Superman were also considered, ones that would likely appeal to the faithful direct sales crowd, as well. “Our idea was that it would be easier in terms of fan recognition, with older readers at any rate, to use established characters. At first, we were thinking of using the Quality characters [Blackhawk, Plastic Man, etc.] or the Fawcett characters [Captain Marvel, Bulletman, etc.]. But that didn’t feel right. The Quality characters were too integrated into the DC Universe and some of them had been darkened and made gritty by that time. The Fawcett characters—well, we had a different Captain Marvel running at that time and you can’t really use the Fawcett characters without Captain Marvel.” DC Comics used their considerable energies to promote its ambitious Impact Comics line, including seeing the characters featured on the cover of Previews [at top, Mar. ’91], Diamond Comics Distribution’s direct marketing solicitation catalog, and, as seen on the next page, by sending out posters featuring the MLJ super-heroes to comics shops.

The MLJ Companion

Somewhere along the way, a name was chosen for the new MLJ revisioning. Bryan Augustyn, the writer chosen as one of the line’s founding editors, said to McLelland that the moniker came “out of thin air.” He added, “Mike Gold wanted a short, punchy name for the imprint, something with… impact. Hey, that might just do it!” Weibe reported the project leader’s take in Amazing Heroes: Now we come to the next big question: why “Impact”? It seems that a lot of names were considered, but that Impact was Gold’s preference by far. “I think that that is what a good super-hero book is all about,” he states, “no matter how you translate it. If you’re talking about power, sheer strength, the ability to fly, or even how having super-powers would affect a person in everyday life. You’re talking about high-impact situations. The best comics of our fiftyyear history are ‘impact’ comics.”

Gold revealed they had spent years on the project before a fortuitous circumstance revealed itself. The former DC staffer told Wiebe, “So [then DC executive vice president and publisher] Paul Levitz and I were talking about it and thought, it was a weird idea, but maybe Archie would be willing to license the rights to their characters to us—they weren’t using them at the time. Well, unbeknownst to us, they were using them at the time. A couple of weeks after our conversation, they announced that they were going to be doing their Spectrum line. So, for the next year-and-a-half, we’re still working on our approach to our super-hero line. Mind you, it’s a back-burner project.” Then came Archie’s sudden move to shut down the Spectrum line even before an issue was printed. With a chuckle, Gold revealed, “The minute we heard about it—and I mean the minute we heard about it, we were all over it like flies on flypaper. We immediately called them up and said, ‘Hey! If you guys aren’t interested in doing it… we might be. Let’s talk.’ Obviously, they were very interested in how we were going to handle their characters. So I started writing slicker versions of all the versions I’d done over the preceding years and we began a very lengthy negotiation process.” Archie readily accepted DC’s plans for their characters and signed a three-year agreement, though not without some minor caveats. “Other than being Comics Code approvable, we had no real limitations from Archie,” Gold told McLelland. “They wanted a few public service things that were, in my opinion, good ideas, such as making certain people wore seat belts while riding in cars. That might sound silly, but I think, if you’re doing a line geared towards younger readers, this is the sort of thing you should do. I’ve always admired Archie Comics’ commitment to public service.”

The Ill-Fated Spectrum Comics Line

As McLelland explained in his web article, “Impact Comics’ original marketing scheme would call for the books to not only be sold through the standard comic book outlets, but also try to revive some older comic outlets like newsstand retail store sales while trying to venture into new venues [including] hobby stores and mall kiosks. This would be all part of Impact’s aim to attract those new, young, entry-level comic book readers. While this plan had been laid out early, those working with Impact would find that they would not find much support toward reaching those goals. Instead of finding their way to these new outlets, the Impact books would find themselves primarily shipped to comic book stores.” At the time of the imprint’s debut, Gold explained to Wiebe that there was outreach to comics retailers. “The store owners we’ve talked to are enthusiastic about our doing these new, straightforward super-hero comics, but it’s going to be hard for them to make a financial commitment what with all the collectibles coming out all the time. Especially since the Impact line tends to fly in the face of comics-as-baseball-cards trend we’re in right now.” Gold confidently added, “Still, we’re in this for the long haul; we’ve made a very longterm commitment.” McLelland, in his in-depth 2005 article, “DC’s Impact Imprint: A Look Back,” detailed the different stages of the roll-out: Three phases were called for in bringing the Impact Universe from idea to print. Gold, along with the editorial team, would first choose which editors, writers, and artists they wanted to help bring the universe to life. Gold’s second phase was sharing Impact Comics marketing philosophy with his new team, while having the writers and artists begin developing first draft proposals for their prospective series. With the proposals in hand, the entire Impact team, including DC President Jenette Kahn, Publisher Paul Levitz, and Executive Editor Dick Giordano, would gather for an editorial retreat to finish hammering out the setting, character relationships, and anything else that needed hashing out for the Impact Universe.

The development group was directed to look back for inspiration from their childhood reading super-hero comics, well before the dark contemporary scene, and to re-envision those sunnier times. “The super-hero books of the early ’60s,” Gold said, “with their straightforward approach and, let’s face it, naiveté, are the role models for the line.” 213

Impact Comics of the 1990s

The next incarnation of the MLJ heroes was Impact Comics, a line of comics published by DC Comics in the 1990s. Archie licensed the rights to DC and while many of their titles received critical acclaim, there were already too many super-hero comics flooding the market, so interest was curtailed.

Making An Impact

Recalling those bygone days when DC Comics licensed the Archie super-hero line

by Bradley S. Cobb   It was 1991. Memories of the 1980s Red Circle era were still floating around in some comic fans’ minds. Some of the more astute fans were still wondering where the Spectrum Comics line went. It was a time when X-Men and Spider-Man got brand new titles which sold way more than they should have (and is McFarlane’s art really that good?). Mike Gold, along with Brian Augustyn and Paul Kupperberg, were coming up with some plans. Gold, for quite some time, had been a champion of bringing in younger readers to comic books. The big three really hadn’t paid all that much attention to the idea (Batman Adventures being a notable exception from DC), but in 1991, the House of Superman gave it a shot. The premise was simple: find some old characters that have some name recognition, and update them. And, while not “dumbing them down,” make them easily accessible to the eight-to-twelve year-old age group. How well it worked can be debated forever (and seeing that Impact folded after two years, the naysayers may have a point), but it brought this reader into comic books, and into the world of cool super-heroes. After deciding not to go with the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (there were legal issues still surrounding the characters at the time), it was decided that the Mighty Crusaders would At left is a detail of Grant Miehm’s Shield illustration for Who’s Who in the Impact Universe Vol. 1 [1991]. Above is the clever Impact logo, which graced the cover of every one of the imprint-within-the-DC-imprint line. Letterer Todd Klein shares that the logo, as well as the first six logos for the comics line, were designed by Keith “Kez” Wilson.

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THE Black Hood

December 1991 to November 1992 #1–12

THE Black Hood Annual 1992 #1

THE Comet

July 1991 to December 1992 #1–18

THE Comet Annual 1992 #1

Crucible

February 1993 to July 1993 #1–6

Pretty much, all the creators involved spent a weekend together getting ideas, and pitch-

THE Crusaders

May 1992 to December 1992 #1–8

THE Fly

August 1991 to December 1992 #1–17

THE Fly Annual 1992 #1

Impact Winter Special 1991 #1

THE Jaguar

August 1991 to October 1992 #1–14

Jaguar Annual 1991 #1

Legend of the Shield July 1991 to October 1992 #1–16

Legend of the Shield Annual 1992 #1

THE Web

September 1991 to October 1992 #1–14

The Web Annual 1992 #1

Who’s Who in the Impact Universe September 1991 to April 1992 #1–3

Impact Comics of the 1990s

ing them. It was from this conference that most of the stuff that appeared was created.

Impact Comics of the 1990s

Impact Comics Index

be good candidates. So, Archie Comics was approached, and the rest is history. Artists were brought in, as well as writers (and some doubled as both), and the first Impact Comics Conference was held.

The first books to hit the stands were Legend of the Shield and The Comet. The following month, The Fly debuted, then The Web and The Jaguar. As the summer went by, a new character emerged in the books. The Black Hood was a Punisher-type vigilante who shot first and asked questions later. He was going around the country recruiting the various super-heroes to join together as a team called “the Superiors.” In the Winter of 1991, Impact Comics put out what could be considered its “annual” for the year. The Impact Winter Special was a spotlight of each of the books in the Impact line— it contained short stories featuring each of the characters done by their respective creative teams, and was tied together with bookend stories by Mark Waid and Carmine Infantino. This could be considered the first appearance of the Crusaders in Impact. The Black Hood finally got his own series shortly thereafter, only to be killed off in issue #1. Mark Wheatley, writer of the title, said “surprised you, didn’t it?” From that issue on, the Black Above is a flopped cover detail from The Jaguar #13 [Sept. 1992], featuring pencils by Mark Matos and inks by Richard Space.

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Hood was Nate Cray, a teenager who “happened” upon the hood (except for a few issues where Hit Coffee was the Hood, but that’s another topic). After three-quarters of a year into the line, the first big crossover event happened. The Coming of the Crusaders spread into each of the six books that Impact had on the shelves. This crossover also introduced Fireball, a hero who would be a core member of the team. The story was this: a villain from the days of the American Crusaders (the super-hero team from the ’60s… according to Impact Comics history) had escaped, and was trying to conquer the world, starting with New York City. It takes the combined efforts of all the heroes, working together, to defeat this menace. Sound familiar? After the seven-part crossover ended, it was continued in The Crusaders issues #1-3. So, truth be told, it was a ten-part storyline. At the end of the story, a guy from the Web tries to convince them to join together as a team. Most of them At top are first issue covers for Legend of the Shield and The Comet. Inset right is a cover detail by the late, great Gil Kane for The Web #14 [Oct. ’92], the final issue.

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agree, except the Comet who is having problems of his own. About this time, we learn that the Comet is an alien trapped in a human body, the Shield has quit and is replaced by a new one, the Fly is accused of having an improper relationship with his own alter-ego, the Black Hood (Nate Cray) quit the super-hero business only to get it thrown back at him a few issues later, the Jaguar’s secret identity has been discovered by her friend/enemy/roommate, and the Web is, well, dysfunctional as ever. Oh, did I mention that the Crusaders almost broke up? Also around this time, the creative team behind the Impact line was made aware of a problem: sales were low and the line was going to be retooled. The original idea for this retooling was to send the Crusaders into space, cancel all the individual titles, and just have the Crusaders continue through this space-faring period. When they finally get back to earth, then a few titles would be restarted. But, this idea was scrapped for a new one.

The MLJ Companion

towards the Crucible reboot. Mind you, some of the titles still ran for another five or six issues. So, the Shield—who had quit— came back while the replacement “died”; the Comet “died” after finding that all he held dear was a lie; the Jaguar’s dad was kidnapped, and she was going to Brazil to investigate; the Black Hood’s history was revealed, and the Fly kept being his fun self. Crucible was the new answer. The Crusaders would still be sent to space, but instead of following their adventures, the focus would stay on Earth, where people are trying to cope with the disappearance of the Crusaders (much like the American Crusaders “mysterious disappearance” years earlier).

In the last issue of The Crusaders, the team thought they were headed home through the transporters, but instead were sent to some alien land. Thus ended the Impact universe for ninety days. Then came Crucible.

So, the edict was handed down for the writers to wrap up the current storylines, and as best as they could, have those stories point

Above is detail from Michael Parobeck’s Fly illustration for Who’s Who in the Impact Universe, Vol. 1 [1991]. Below are the first issue covers for The Fly and The Jaguar.

Impact Comics of the 1990s

Crucible was supposed to have been drawn by Joe (Daredevil, X-Factor) Quesada, but due to his heavy schedule, he only did layouts—and only for the first four issues, at that. So, in came Chuck

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Wojtkiewicz, who’d already been the artist on The Jaguar and The Crusaders, to do the book. Back before he was so popular, Mark Waid’s name appeared in the writer’s spot on this series, along with Brian Augustyn. The series followed the Black Hood—who never really joined the Crusaders to begin with, so he didn’t suffer their fate; the

Shield—the new one who was actually the replacement who died… but didn’t, I guess; and the Comet—who also apparently didn’t die either. The Hood brought the Comet out of hiding (he was tricked into it by the bad guys), the Comet went nuts trying to kill himself, and the Shield had to help stop it from happening at a nuclear plant. The idea for Crucible was to set the stage for Impact Comics: Phase Two. The final issue was supposed to lead to the three new series that were planned. After sales of the six-issue mini-series failed to impress, the line was cancelled. Because of this, the final issue of the Crucible series was re-written to provide some closure to the line. The Crusaders were brought back at the very end of the book, the Comet officially died, and the Black Hood officially quit. Crucible #6 carried the subtitle “The Final Impact.” DC Comics’ lease on the characters expired, and Archie took control over them once more. Even though it caught a lot of flak for various things (such as “it’s written for kids!” or “they ruined the charAtop this spread are the first issues of various Impact comics, including their “First! Big!” (and only!) Impact Winter Special [1991]. At left is a cover detail of Black Hood #4 [Mar. ’92], art by Rich Burchett. Next page inset is cover detail of The Comet #13 [July ’92], art by Michael Blair. At far right are the covers and the binder for Who’s Who in the Impact Universe [’91–’92].

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The MLJ Companion

acters!”), Impact had a lot of high points and good things going for it. Before they hit it big, Impact was the home of creators such as Mark Waid, Tom Lyle, Rick Burchett, and Peter Snejbjerg, as well as many others. Many people insisted on comparing these characters to their predecessors, when the names were the only real similarity. If taken on their own, the books were very good stuff. Even when compared, the Impact stuff holds up better than the ’60s versions of the characters. No matter what the opinion held on Impact Comics (a.k.a. the Mighty “!”), the fact remains that it kept fans’ hopes up for the possible return of the Mighty Crusaders to the comics racks. The following spreads showcase the entire set of Impact trading cards, as well as the “puzzle” illos by Michael Golden, which constituted the card backs. Rather elusively, three of the cards were included in Who’s Who in the Impact Universe Vol. 3 [Apr. ’92].

Impact Comics of the 1990s

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6 Brian Augustyn

Creator Chat

An Interview with

Conducted by Bradley S. Cobb [Editor’s Note: Brian Augustyn began his career as editor in 1986 for Tru Studios on their title Trollords. His first work with DC Comics was Sgt. Rock Special #2, but he is best known for his work on Batman: Gotham by Gaslight. In the early ’90s, he became editor of Flash, Justice League, and Justice League Task Force. As co-writers, Augustyn and Mark Waid scripted The Crusaders for Impact Comics. Currently, Brian is managing editor for Visionary Comics Studios.] Bradley S. Cobb: What brought you to Impact? Brian Augustyn: I was a part of Mike Gold’s development group at DC, and we sort of shaped Impact together from the beginning. We were looking for a line of comics that would be good “entrylevel” super-hero comics for younger readers—which was one of our charges from on high. Gold mentioned the Archie heroes. I recall our thinking being that we could do with them what DC had done with the Charlton heroes. I recall that we looked at acquiring or leasing other preexistent (though dormant) hero universes as well, including (I seem to remember) the Tower Comics’ T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Obviously the Mighty Crusaders are the ones we went with. BSC: What was your first introduction to the Mighty Crusaders? Augustyn: I remember reading the Mighty Crusaders during the post-Batman TV, camp-hero boom of the late ’60s. As a kid, I guess I didn’t realize that they were weird, goofy comics, because I enjoyed them a lot. I especially enjoyed the Fly and the Black Hood. As a more grownup comic fan, I gained a greater

appreciation when I learned of the Golden Age MLJ comics— and the great Simon and Kirby Fly and Shield (Private Strong) of the late ’50s. BSC: Why did your editing stint on the Fly end after five or six issues? Augustyn: I was promoted, plain and simple. I got elevated to editor of DC’s mainstream Universe line. I went on to edit Flash, Wonder Woman, and others (eventually including the JLA franchise). BSC: Which book that you edited did you feel was the best overall? Augustyn: Of the Impact books, I enjoyed The Fly the most. This was true both because of my affection for the character, but also because I was working with old friends, Len Strazewski and the late, great Mike Parobeck. Len and I grew up together in Chicago, and I had brought Mike into comics on El Diablo. We later went on to some great fun on the JSA book. At top is a portrait of writer/editor Brian Augustyn, courtesy of photographer Damian Harris, snapped at the 2014 Phoenix Comicon (with special thanks to Phoenix Comicon and Amanda Kechely). At left is a panel detail of the late Mike Parobeck’s enchanting artwork for The Fly. Pencils by Parobeck and inks by Paul Fricke, from #1 [Aug. 1991]. Next page is Joe Quesada and Joe Rubinstein’s cover for Crucible #1 [Feb. 1993] and the “phase two” Impact Comics logo design.

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Brian Augustyn Interview

I also greatly enjoyed working with Mark Waid and Tom Lyle on The Comet, and Bill Loebs, David A. Williams, and Chuck Wojtkiewitcz on The Jaguar as well, though. Impact was a great experience, and I enjoyed the whole thing a lot. BSC: Had you and Mark Waid worked together before teaming up to write the Crusaders series? Augustyn: Mark and I had shared an office as junior editors at DC, and we had co-written a Detective Comics Annual, in 1988. Also, Mark invented the idea of what became Elseworlds, and he had edited me on Gotham by Gaslight, the first book of that idea. In addition, Mark and I had just hit it off as friends almost as soon as we met at DC in 1987. BSC: How were you told of Impact’s need for retooling? Augustyn: I was off the editing of the Impact books for a while by that time, though Mark and I were writing The Crusaders for Jim Owsley. I don’t remember anything remarkable in the news of the change of direction, though. Jim said that DC was concerned that the line was slipping in sales and we should consider “shaking things up.” Crucible was our first attempt to do that, and I think we came up with some pretty exciting stuff. BSC: Why did the original plan (thanks to Mark Waid for this info), which consisted of the Crusaders not being the only Impact title—and their adventures through space and time—get scrapped for the Crucible idea? Augustyn: To be honest, I don’t really recall anything specific. Knowing how Mark, Jim, and I were working, I suspect we just began cooking up something new and ran with it. BSC: What was planned for the Crusaders had the cancellation notice not been handed down? Augustyn: I’m not sure we ever made those plans, but if we did, I just don’t remember, sorry. BSC: Who came up with the Crucible idea? Augustyn: Jim and Mark and I did—in a long, wild, very exciting lunch at TGI Fridays on 52nd Street in Manhattan. BSC: What was originally planned to happen in the final issue of Crucible? Augustyn: I seem to recall that Crucible #6 was adjusted to provide more closure, after it became evident that there weren’t going to be any spin-off books after all. If we had proceeded according to plan, we would have led directly out of Crucible

Impact Comics of the 1990s

into the three follow-up books. BSC: What did you guys have planned for Madame Satan? Augustyn: I think we had been planning on a multi-part storyline introducing Madame Satan as a literally demonic villain for the Crusaders. Beyond that impression, alas, the plans are lost to the mists of my imperfect memory. BSC: Were there any actual ideas regarding Mr. Justice, or did you guys just see fit to throw his name in for good measure? Augustyn: No, we actually intended to re-introduce him and several other MLJ heroes—just as we did with Steel Sterling in the back-ups to the “lost” books. BSC: If given the opportunity, and the marketing needed, do you

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think the retooled Impact would have thrived? Augustyn: I do. Beyond marketing support, though, we would have needed the same energy and enthusiasm we had at the original launch of the Impact line. I think that was a challenge we would have risen to, but we did feel like we were riding on a sinking ship much of the time.

BSC: What part did you have in the creation of the Fly for Impact? Augustyn: I picked the creative team and worked with them very closely to recreate the character within the Impact paradigm. It was terrific fun.

BSC: What part did you play in bringing Black Jack to life? Augustyn: Part of our challenge as Impact editors and creators BSC: Finish this sentence, “Ideally, Impact would have______.” was to slowly incorporate other retooled MLJ characters, with Augustyn: …done for comics what Stan Lee’s Marvel had done in an eye toward introducing secondary stars—as well as characters the 1960s; energize a somewhat stodgy medium, find new spins on to headline potential, second-wave Impact titles. Len, Mike, and familiar material, and introduce new readers to a dynamic, accessible I tossed several names from the MLJ list around and Black Jack entertainment experience. That’s an ideal—I realize that we weren’t was the first one we got to. I liked him very much and I guess I Stan, Jack, and the Mighty Marvel Bullpen, of course. was pretty much an equal contributor to his recreation. Among other things, I’m pretty sure I came up with the BSC: What was planned for the new gambling resort city’s name, Las Arenas (the Sands). Impact after the first issues? Augustyn: More of the same, I’m sure.

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Impact Socks It Old School While, sure, DC’s sub-imprint was not directly related to the preceding continuity (as it was) of Archie Comics’ MLJ super-hero universe, the line did infuse its titles with delightful echoes of the past, though with twists that gave the artists and writers a vested interest. As Sheldon Wiebe related in his Amazing Heroes preview [#192, July ’91], “[An] interesting aspect of the Impact line is that all the creators involved have equity in the creations because the characters have been so radically altered. ‘We could have closed the deal a lot earlier,’ says Gold, ‘if we hadn’t had that because Archie owns the material. So we were fighting for our creators with our licensor. That was a pretty foreign concept for them.’” Inset right is the “Original Shield.” Below is Fireball.

Impact Comics of the 1990s

Gold added, “Other comic book publishers have always picked up the rights after previous publishers have gone out of business. To actually license characters from an extremely healthy publisher—hey! That’s pretty radical.

But then, this whole deal is pretty radical as far as I’m concerned. It’s been fun. And it’s always nice to be helping to set those types of precedents.” In no particular order, here’s a sampling of characters, some weird and some wonderful, appearing in the early 1990s’ books that rejuvenated old MLJ characters beyond the Impact characters starring in their own books. The Legend of the Shield, the one Impact title that boasted a semblance of fidelity to the character’s long history at Archie, mentions the Original Shield in #1, who is finally resurrected in #12 [ June ’92]. The opening sequence in The Crusaders #1 reveals their predecessor, the American Crusaders, consisting of the Impact versions of MLJ’s Captain Commando, Doc Strong, and Firefly, as well as the Original Shield, and a radical revisioning of The Black Witch (who had been, back in the days of Zip Comics, a stereotypical old witch—pointed hat, broom, black cat, and all— who served merely as storytelling host for spooky tales). By page two of the flashback sequence (set in 1963), the team had disbanded.

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The Fly #6 [ Jan. ’92] featured a new version of Black Jack, whose namesake was another Zip Comics player from the ’40s. This time, he is the “self-appointed guardian” of the Impact world’s gambling mecca, Las Arenas, whose civilian identity is debonair Troy Ventura, personal assistant to New Gold Rush casino owner Rex Russell. Three issues later, that good-natured, blond hunk of a man do-gooder from Mississippi, Fireball, came into the Impact Universe (in The Fly #9 [Apr. ’92]). He’s able to not exactly fly but rather, well, has the ability to float and (did you guess?) has the power to created fireballs à la Johnny Storm. Inferno, the fire-breathing villain-turned-hero from the Golden Age Zip days, was re-imagined as an over-zealous cybernetic super-soldier, a giant weaponized robot dude hellbent on zapping the Comet. The misguided patriotic villain debuted in The Comet #4 [Oct. ’91]. Two issues later, the Impact variant of The Hangman made his first appearance, in The Comet #6 [Dec. ’91]. San Francisco political activist Eric Adams is transformed by a blind Native American shaman into the hooded vigilante (decidedly less violent and vengeful than the previous incarnations), replete with a nameless crow which serves as his eyes. In that story, the Hangman teams with the Comet to grapple with the henchmen of a corrupt corporation. The Comet continues the pseudo-retroactive fun as Bob Phantom (a long way from the days as a Blue Ribbon and Top-Notch Comics feature) prowls again in #7 [ Jan. ’92]. Bob Brooks, TV newsroom assistant and wanna-be news anchor, hopes to gain attention by

nabbing an exclusive interview with the titular character, so the nebbish creates a super-hero identity to “get up close and personal” and sidle up to the Comet. Bob fibs to the flying hero that he has been a secret government agent for years and was originally trained by Doc Strong. Serendipity turns reluctant Bob Phantom, an ulcer-prone asthmatic with high cholesterol, into the appreciative city’s newest hero. Perhaps the most radical reenvisioning took place in The Black Hood #11 [Nov. ’92] with the introduction of the Impact version of The Fox, now a concoction that is half-human and half-animal. Environmental activist Travis Fox blithely chugs down the dangerous genetic drug G-NE to join “with the very life force of the planet.” Beautifully rendered by Neil Vokes. the Fox appears to be a strip with great potential. The introduction of characters bearing the same name as classic MLJ characters was, as evidenced by logo treatments bearing trademark bugs, no accident, and others were planned, including Madame Satan. Ah, what could have been!

Various Impact characters sporting the same names as classic MLJ heroes. Counterclockwise from top right: the Hangman, Black Jack, Bob Phantom, the American Crusaders (clockwise from left: the original Shield, Captain Commando, Firefly, Black Witch, and Doc Strong), the Fox, and Inferno.

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An Interview with

Conducted by Bradley S. Cobb [Editor’s Note: Jimmy Palmiotti started at Marvel Comics in 1991, inking titles such as The Punisher, Ghost Rider, The Nam, and the Marvel 2099 line. Palmiotti has accumulated extensive inking and writing credits and has often inked the work of friend and collaborator Joe Quesada, notably on Ash (which they co-created) and Daredevil (especially the “Guardian Devil” arc penned by film director Kevin Smith). In 1994, he and Quesada formed a publishing company, Event Comics, which, in 1998, was contracted to do several books for Marvel Comics, dubbed Marvel Knights. He is now also known as an editor for numerous companies, and co-writer of various DC series with wife Amanda Connor.] Bradley S. Cobb: You were the inker for all six issues of Crucible, and the first two covers. Did you work on any other Impact Comics projects? Jimmy Palmiotti: No, that’s it, and inking a card for insert in one of the other books. That is all I did for that line. I came around when the line was on its way out.

Jimmy Palmiotti Interview

6 Jimmy Palmiotti

Creator Chat

BSC: Do you remember which card, and who penciled it? Palmiotti: It was the spider guy, Arrachnus, penciled by Joe Quesada and I think that was done for Mike Golden when he was editor at DC Comics. BSC: You inked Chuck Wojtkiewicz and Joe Quesada on the items mentioned in Crucible #1. Who did you find to be easier to ink? Palmiotti: Joe was easier because I was used to his work. Working on Chuck was a learning process at the time and I feel I got better inking over him as each issue went on. He really is a very detail-oriented artist. BSC: As the inker, did you have any input into the creative process of the final Impact Comics series, or did you just ink the pages as they showed up? Palmiotti: I just Impact Comics of the 1990s

inked them as they showed up. I trusted the whole team on the project to do a killer job. BSC: What is your fondest memory of working on Impact Comics? Palmiotti: It’s when I first became friends with Waid and Augustyn and the editor of the series, Jim Owsley. BSC: What were your thoughts on the Impact line, as a whole, or individually (if you really had favorites of the titles), or were you really indifferent to the whole thing until the Crucible series? Palmiotti: Well, I thought it was aimed at a younger audience, and you can correct me if I am wrong. I never read the other titles at the time and had little interest in them because even as a kid, I remembered them from Archie comics. I probably missed some good comics, but everything comes around eventually, I’m sure. At top is Kendall Whitehouse’s portrait of the multi-talented Jimmy Palmiotti, who inked the Impact Comics’ Crucible series. Inset is detail featuring an angry Comet from Dick Giordano’s cover art for Crucible #5 [June 1993].

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6 The Black Hood

Character Stats

A Look at

Black Hood / Wayne Simondson Weapons: BSA Double-Edged Throwing Knife EX Electronic Eavesdropping Equipment First-Aid Kit - German Heckler Firearm Glass Cutter - Grappling Hook and Line Koch VP070 Automatic Pistol Soviet AK-47 Kalashnikov Assault Rifle Talents: Repair/Tinkering, Knives, Guns, Military, Execution/Torture. Background: Real name : Wayne Sidmondson Marital Status: Married Known Relatives: Darcy (wife), Len and Kris (kids) Affiliation: None Base of Ops: Formerly St. George (Miss.), now Mobile Height: 6’2” Weight: 223 lbs Eyes: Green Hair: Reddish brown Motivation: Seeking Justice Occupation: Former restaurant owner, vigilante History: Wayne Sidmondson was a good man with a strong moral sense, and an entrepreneur. He owned the first McBonnie franchise in his hometown of St. George, and made it quite profitable. However, there was a serious crime problem, and his business was held up about once a year. Worse, the criminals tended to be in and out of the judicial system in record time. With time, Sidmondson started to crack. He became obsessed by crime and punishment, and started to collect weapons and instruments of torture and execution the way other men collect hunting equipment. This mania led him to purchase an antique: an authentic executioner’s hood from the Middle Ages. This piece of clothing had an interesting history: it had actually been cursed by a sorcerer before he was decapitated. The curse was that “whosoever wears the hood, be they compelled: do only good!” The curse was quite effective; the hood was passed from one man to another during the centuries, worn as a cloak, a coat or a mask and becoming old and frayed—and invariably forcing its owner to do what he believed best. Given his obsession, it was only natural that it would turn Sidmondson into a violent vigilante. 230

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Impact Comics of the 1990s

far behind in order to follow a trail of crime across America. Traveling from city to city and from fight to fight, he has obsessed to the point of psychosis while gripped by the power of the hood.

Character Stats: The Black Hood

Personality: Sidmondson is single-minded, tenacious, and resourceful and so completely consumed by the idea of exacting justice as the Black Hood that he has thrown his entire personal life into ruin. He has exhausted his savings, taxed his credit limit and left his wife and children

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6 The Comet

Character Stats

A Look at

The Comet Talents: Scientist, Vehicles. Drawbacks: Minor rage. When he is faced with a frustrating situation he cannot control, Comet becomes violently angry. Motivation: Responsibility of Power  Background: The second Impact title to appear on the stands was The Comet. Written and drawn by former Starman penciler Tom Lyle, this title featured the most powerful character in the Impact universe. Before he got really famous, Mark Waid was a scripter on this title (and sometimes co-plotter), and he later went on to write the series outright. Rob Conners was your average college student… consumed with his studies, taken up with the issues of the day, falling in and out of love. Average, except for the fact that he could fly, melt things with heat blasts from his hands, and blind people temporarily with his own radiance! Throughout the early part of the series, Rob got to defeat villains (like the Stalker, AppleJack), beat petty thieves (the Tech Wizards), and meet seemingly new super-heroes (the Hangman). Then, after Tom Lyle departed the strip, the focus became more on figuring out where the Comet came from. While at a lab in Alaska, Rob Conners’ parents went missing. In his desperate search for his parents, Conners climbed a radio tower that he didn’t know was broken. He fell off the tower and absorbed radioactive waves that it emitted. He started having visions of things he had apparently forgotten, and soon thereafter discovered his amazing new abilities. In issue #11, Rob Conners was killed… or was he? The Comet came face-to-face with his own alter-ego, but this alter-ego spoke some weird language. The villain, Inferno, ended up destroying Rob’s house, along with this alternate Rob. From that point on, the Comet was wanted for the murder of Rob Conners (strange, eh?). Mark Waid and company took readers on a wild adventure which finally revealed that Rob Conners and his family were abducted by aliens, and the aliens then took their place on Earth. During a storm of some sort, the connection between Rob Conners’ brain 232

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working with Rob’s girlfriend, Victoria, who died. In order to disable a nuclear-type bomb, Rob took it and flew into the stratosphere, and apparently he died as well. At least, it seemed that way… until he came back in the Crucible mini-series! The Comet was even supposed to have his own series once again after Crucible was finished, but instead Impact was cancelled for good.

Character Stats: The Comet

and the alien’s was fried, and the alien (in Rob’s form) actually had Rob’s consciousness. Needless to say, things got complicated when Rob learned the truth. He decided to go public and reveal that he was indeed Rob Conners. The only problem was that when he removed the mask, everyone saw him for the alien he was. It was also revealed that the aliens were

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6 The Fly

Character Stats

A Look at

The Fly / Jason Troy Powers: Wall Crawling , Flight EX, Sonic Generation Circular Vision Limitations: Circular Vision is limited to 270 degrees—the Fly can’t see directly behind his head. Sonic Beam is actually the buzzing of the Fly’s wings which can shatter glass or burst eardrums. This attack can only be used when using the Flight power. Equipment: Fly Amulet, EX material Talents: Acrobatics, Skateboarding. Motivation: Thrill of Adventure Occupation: High school student Background: Jason Troy was your average teenager. He was into video games, girls, sports, and daydreamed a lot. He also didn’t pay attention very much in school. One day in high school Jason Troy was faced with an assignment: to create a modern-day hero. He started with a humble beginning (what’s more humble than a housefly?), and created the Flyster! Jason submitted his Flyster assignment to the teacher, who gave Jason a magical amulet, with a Fly encased in amber. Later, as Jason was walking downtown, he saw that the local mall was on fire. It was due to the pyromaniac villain, Burnout. Jason held the amulet, and wished to himself that he could become the Fly. And he did! Len Strazewski, along with Mike Parobeck, set the fun tone on this series with their combination of animation-style art and storytelling. Parobeck also was the only Impact regular series artist to also draw an Annual issue. The series was the third to debut, after Legend of the Shield and The Comet, and with the exception of The Comet, The Fly was the longest series (17 issues) in the Impact Comics line. Throughout his recorded adventures, the Fly had fun. He got to travel with his grandpa, Jason Troy Sr., a former Web agent, to places such as Las Arena, where he met the hero Black Jack. He teamed up with the Comet, and also met his biggest fan, a Southerner known as Fireball. This storyline was the beginning of the “Coming of the Crusaders” arc, which led to the seventh Impact title, The Crusaders. Jason also had some personal problems. In trying to juggle his home life with the super234

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Crusaders #8, tying into Fly #17 showed the Fly, as well as Jason Troy, vanishing from the face of the Earth. The Fly was not seen again until the last issue of Crucible, in which the Crusaders returned to Earth from an interstellar trip. Not much involved in the story, he did marry his girlfriend, the Jaguar (in the final issue of Crucible, #6)… And they lived happily ever after.

Character Stats: The Fly

heroics, he failed. Suspicions arose about his exact relationship with the Fly. When he was missing for a few days (as told in the “Coming of the Crusaders” storyline, as well as Crusaders #1–3), people suspected the Fly was having an “improper” relationship with young Jason Troy. Things improved after Jason denied those charges against Crownes Point’s own superhero, but not for long. The events told in

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INTERLUDE DC’s Diminishing Impact

Though Impact gets a solid tryout, the line is nixed by Jon B. Cooke Hopes were high for the Impact Comics line. The DC Comics development team, led by Mike Gold, had spent years meticulously planning a kids-centric, accessible super-hero universe, one that would not be exclusive to the direct sales market. The intention was to make the comics also available on newsstands, bookstores, and retail shops across the nation, where they hoped to catch the attention of seven- to thirteen-year-old readers. But, alas, the best laid plans of mice and men… In his 2005 sequart.org essay, “DC’s Impact Imprint: A Look Back,” Ryan McLelland shared, “The editorial team would also face obstacles right from the start. ‘[Circulation exec] Matt Ragone left DC for a similar role at Marvel and the project got orphaned,’ Gold relays. ‘The new marketing/distribution vice president told [DC vice president and editorial director] Dick Giordano and me that he wouldn’t support the line, so therefore it was a big mistake and we should kill it before the first issues ever came out. The newsstand drive, which was central to the entire concept, never happened. That’s the way it is in the corporate world. At that time, an editor or two decided to start looking elsewhere to protect their careers, but the creative teams held together nicely.’” By the time The Crusaders was released, sales began to slip on the imprint, which struggled for attention in a glutted marketplace during an era when DC’s marketing stunt—the “death” of Superman—was commanding all the publicity. “Due to the distribution and marketing limitations,” writer Brian Augustyn told McLelland, “we never got sales that compared with mainstream

fare. The idea was to build an entirely new line for an entirely new audience, so in addition to the newsstand support we needed; Impact also needed a steady hand and a lot of time. It took Marvel awhile to become truly successful. The Impact line did generate an enormous amount of mail, I was told more mail than the rest of the DC books combined. That mail obviously came from our target audience, so I think there was good reason to think that with time and distribution/marketing support it might have succeeded.” Mike Gold, the prime mover of the line, left DC upon the debut of The Crusaders and Augustyn was promoted to oversee the entire DC Universe just when Impact hit its apex. “Thus,” Augustyn explained, “the books fell to less experienced, less invested editors. Several of the original creators had moved on fairly quickly and the books started experiencing a rapid succession of other writers and artists.” Jim Owsley (today known as Christopher Priest) arrived as Gold’s replacement and a plan was put in motion to revitalize the entire Impact line. Mark Waid quipped to McLelland, “Christopher Priest was aboard as the new go-to guy and he was swell. No pressure ever to do anything other than tell the best stories I could think of. Owsley was extremely hands-off. Extremely. Insanely so. In fact, I can’t swear that he’s read the entire run of The Comet to this day.” In his retrospective, McLelland explained the new approach: A plan was put forth to retool the Impact line, starting with sending the Crusaders into space. Following this space launch all of the individual Impact titles would have been cancelled except for the Crusaders title, which would follow the Crusaders going through different dimensions trying to make their way back home. When the team finally got back to Earth, some of the titles would then be restarted. Unfortunately for fans and creators alike, the well-laid plans would not launch exactly as planned. Though Waid and Augustyn would plot out the Crusaders title a number of issues past the dozen mark, the decision was made that The Crusaders At left is artist Gene Ha’s character designs for the Forged Steel/Steel Sterling concept, an Impact “Phase Two” back-up series proposal that never came to be. On the next page are the interconnected Impact Phase Two covers by Michael Netzer (formerly Nasser). From left: The Wrath of the Comet #1, The American Shield #1, and Mark of the Black Hood #1, all intended for 1992 release.

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would also be cancelled along with the rest of the titles before the launch of the mini-series Crucible… All of the titles would soon enough release their final issues, with Crucible being released ninety days later. The Crucible mini-series would then be the lone book to setup the new Impact universe, commonly referred to as Phase Two… “Though Crucible was envisioned as the opportunity to reinvigorate the line and get it back on track, I believe the pressure was such that it had to be a seriously huge hit,” says Augustyn. “Crucible’s sales were probably merely okay, but certainly not as sensational as they needed to be. I think that in general, both inside DC and out, it was seen as too little and too late. It was decided at the last minute that the books would not come back for that third year and we were instructed to wrap things up quickly, if not exactly neatly”… Instead of launching the new titles, the plot was adjusted to try and give the entire Impact universe some sort of closure. Crucible #6 would be released as the final Impact comic book.

Impact Comics of the 1990s

Impact Comics Unpublished Phase 2 MARK OF THE Black Hood Written by Brian Augustyn Penciled by Chuck Wojykiewicz 1992 Unpublished

Wrath of the Comet Written by Mark Waid Penciled by Dave Cockrum 1992 Unpublished

The American Shield

Written by Brian Augustyn & Mark Waid Penciled by Steve Carr & Deryl Skelton 1992 Unpublished

FORGING STEEL (STEEL STERLING) Written by Paul Kupperberg Penciled by Gene Ha 1992 Unpublished

Who’s Who in the Impact Universe Model Sheets for Impact Phase 2 1992 Unpublished

Phase Two was to include a rebranding of Impact and a new line of comics: American Shield by Augustyn, Waid, Steve Carr, and Daryl Skeleton; Mark of the Black Hood by Augustyn and Chuck Wojtkiewicz; and Wrath of the Comet by Waid and Dave Cockrum. All three titles would have featured a back-up series starring Steel Sterling by Paul Kupperberg and Gene Ha. McLelland writes: While the line was officially cancelled, DC actually kept the character rights for a number of years after cancellation. “The folks at Archie told me DC had actually exercised their option clause on the characters after the line had been cancelled,” says Gold. “Since that cost DC a renewal fee, I assume that they had reason to take this action. The Archie people said they were actually anxious to get their properties back and I guess DC kept them tied up for another couple years. ”

While the Impact chapter in the convoluted history of the characters drew to a close, DC Comics would eventually welcome back the MLJ super-heroes. 237

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An Interview with

Conducted by Paul Castiglia

[Editor’s Note: In the late ’90s/early ’00s, The Fly was pitched as a motion picture series by Batman movie series producer Michael Uslan, which was optioned by noted director Robert Zemeckis. Ultimately, a movie was never produced. Here, Uslan reminisces about how he brought The Fly to the big screen… almost.] Paul Castiglia: Can you recall your first experience with or exposure to the Archie stable of super-heroes, and your initial reactions to them? Michael Uslan: It was 1959, with Adventures of the Fly #1 and Double Life of Private Strong #1. I thought the Fly was one of the most bizarre creatures I’d ever seen. I related completely to Tommy Troy, and thought it was cool that he turned into an adult super-hero, having not been yet been exposed to Captain Marvel—who disappeared when I was two years old, about a year before I started reading comics. I also recall the cover of Adventures of the Fly #3—the one where he says, “I the Fly do solemnly swear”—that cover, to me at age eight was photo-real. I had never seen a comic book cover that looked like that, and I was fascinated by how real it looked to me, and how scary. So that’s what drew me to that more than anything. With Private Strong, it was more of a traditional, just one more super-hero, with a pretty dull title of a comic book. I would have passed it up but for the red, white and blue he was stripping off his shirt that reminded me of Superman, so I wound up picking that one up. I thought it was pretty good but it did not knock my socks off the way that The Fly did. PC: Did you have a favorite MLJ/Mighty Comics character when you were a kid? Uslan: It was definitely the Fly and it was also the greatest mystery I had as a kid. I remember, after something like 28 issues or so, the thing just disappeared. There was no comic con, no Internet. I did not know comics got canceled. Distribution was always spotty if it wasn’t a DC book or Dell book so you had to search many candy stores and drug stores to find different comics. I couldn’t figure out why I was missing issues of The Fly and why they weren’t coming out like they used to. Another great mystery for me when I was younger, as that The Fly comic had disappeared for a while, and then I finally found a copy, Tommy Troy was now an attorney, an adult. No explanation. It was just the most baffling thing in the world—I thought, “Well, how could I have missed a thousand issues?” It was just the most baffling thing in the world. It just made absolutely no sense to me and, while I still bought it, I no

Above is an uncredited publicity photo of Michael Uslan, the Batman movie producer (and longtime comics aficionado and author of the memoir, The Boy Who Loved Batman [2011]), who hoped to bring The Fly to the silver screen.

longer was fascinated with it anymore, and the artwork seemed very bland, very plain all of a sudden. I think I bought it more out of habit—maybe when Cat-Girl showed up, that was a contributing factor, and when Fly-Girl showed up—but outside of that my interest waned. PC: Once you discovered the Archie heroes, did you go back and try to collect back issues from the Golden Age MLJ days? Uslan: Well I didn’t know there were any for a period of time, until I became of member of fandom when I was about 13 and started to get the fanzines as well as Jules Feiffer’s book, The Great Comic Book Heroes. That opened my eyes that there was this pre-history in the Golden Age. All of a sudden, things were changing and this whole new world of the Golden Age of comics was opening up to me. I devoured everything I could read or find having anything to do with it. One of the first clues was actually in Fly or Jaguar comics when they would show the

Chapter Seven: The Fly (almost) Goes Hollywood

7 Michael Uslan

Creator Chat

Production Illustrations by Greg & Tim Hildebrandt

The Fly (almost) Goes Hollywood

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Black Hood—although sometimes he had a red hood—but that was an indicator that there was more than one—there’s more to this than meets the eye. But it was the fanzines that really, truly opened my eyes to that. And a couple of them early on had the MLJ story, and I got to experience it, I got to start to see reprints even though they were on spirit masters (dittos) and mimeographs and offset printing and everything was kind of muddy. I was exposed to Black Jack and the Web and Mr. Justice. Being early on a Spectre fan, from the first pages I saw of the Spectre in the Jules Feiffer book, I quickly gravitated to Mr. Justice and thought it was really, really cool—a super-hero who killed people and was really, really mean and that I thought was very, very interesting. Then, at conventions, I started to find some of these comics from the Golden Age and I started to pick up a number of them and began to include them in the building of my collection. PC: Were you surprised to discover that legendary talents like Irv Novick, Jerry Siegel, Bob Fujitani, Bernie Krigstein, Jack Cole, and even Simon & Kirby worked on these characters? Uslan: By around 1959, I was already recognizing Jack Kirby’s work from Challengers of the Unknown, from some of the DC mystery stories he was doing, from his run on “Green Arrow”; and then a little bit after that the Marvel monster books he started doing, so I was aware of Kirby. I don’t know if I was aware of his name at that moment in time, but I was aware of Kirby and knew [the art] was [by] that guy. PC: In your own work as a comic book archivist/historian early in your career, did you ever uncover anything interesting about the MLJ/ Mighty Heroes characters that was not then generally known? Uslan: I started at DC, and when I first got there I had to clean out the closet. I actually read in the file the letter from DC Comics to Archie Comics’ John Goldwater demanding that he cease and desist publication of Double Life of Private Strong insofar as [DC’s then-claim that] it was an infringement of the rights of Superman. Goldwater buckled quickly after that threat and ceased publication of it. Years later, I said to Joe Simon, “Hey Joe, do you remember why Double Life of Private Strong only lasted two issues while The Fly kept going?” And he said, “Yeah, it was poor sales.” I go, “Wait a minute, Joe—1959—how many issues did it take before you got your sales reports in?” He said, “Three, sometimes four… wait a

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minute!” I told Joe about the letter I’d read, and laid it out for him, gave him details which he then included in his book, The Comic Book Makers. PC: When I researched and edited the archive collection, The Mighty Crusaders: Origin of a Super-Team, you were kind enough to write the Foreword. Looking back now, it seems to be a 360-degree flip since the Mighty Comics approach was so pop art and pow! zap! wham!—the very things you disliked about the campy Adam West Batman TV show. Was your reaction different because you had more invested in the “real Batman” of the comics for so long as opposed to the Mighty Comics characters? Or was there some other reason you accepted that approach more with the Mighty Comics line? Uslan: It’s more complex with that. With Batman, it wasn’t just the fact that he was my favorite super-hero, and not just the fact that I knew what he was like in 1939 and ’40, when he was created by Bob and Bill [Finger]and everything Jerry [Robinson] added to that pot, but it was at that time the only incarnation the world at large had of Batman. To the world at large, that pow! zap! wham! TV show was a joke, and Batman was a joke, and they were laughing at him, not with him. That was all they knew from Batman. That kind of went into all of that [my reaction to the Batman TV show]. With these characters, it didn’t really matter that much. I only ever took real offense with one panel. As I told you, as a kid I immediately, when I learned about the Golden Age of comics, developed an affinity for Mr. Justice, who would kill people and was like the Spectre and was angry and vengeful, and I think one of the first panels Jerry Siegel wrote in bringing back Mr. Justice in the 1960s had him swallowing bullets that were aimed at him and the word balloon was, “Yum yum— tastes like gumdrops!” That pissed me off ! That bothered the hell out of me. But the rest of it was just all fun. We were reading the stuff and we knew it was cheesy-trashy, we knew it was just cheap imitation Marvel of the era, but it was fun, and you never knew who was going to turn up in the next issue. Yeah, the Comet didn’t look like the Comet from the old days and the Black Hood had a robot rocking horse, which was about as stupid as you can get, and a cape that he had that he shouldn’t. The Wizard didn’t look like the Wizard. The Hangman’s cape was missing—Black Hood must have stolen it! A lot of things were annoyances and pet peeves to those of us who by then knew about the Golden Age.

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PC: How did the Mighty Comics line stack up for you in regards to the Marvel and DC comics you were enjoying at the time? Uslan: The artwork was pretty generally rotten. It was mostly the work of Paul Reinman, who had his best days in the Golden Age doing Green Lantern and other things but, by the mid-’60s, his work was not as appealing to us as fans. Mike Sekowsky did some stuff and Mike was never my favorite artist at DC, just not my preference, although I know he has his fans. I never liked the stiffness of the bodies that he did, for example, or the way Wonder Woman looked less like a woman and more like a lumpy version of Superman. The art certainly didn’t capture us and the stories were silly, with one exception: I thought the Web was terrific. If you go back and look at those Web stories, what you pretty much get is kind of like The Incredibles before there was The Incredibles. PC: Back in the 1990s when I worked on staff at Archie, I had the pleasure of helping do research for a proposed movie you were developing based on The Fly. Can you explain the genesis of that project, how it morphed along the way, and its final outcome? Uslan: [Partner and mentor] Ben Melniker and I acquired the rights to The Fly from Archie Comics and Joe Simon. I did two pitches: One to Will Smith and one to Robert Zemeckis. I was working with the talent agency CAA at the time. Pretty much, I only showed people that were involved in the project the first four Simon & Kirby crew issues of The Fly, and I showed them the ones with Cat-

The Fly (almost) Goes Hollywood

Girl and Fly-Girl, and that was it. They did not see anything else from the original source material. PC: Comics fans are very particular when it comes to the actors who portray the characters they’ve come to know in the comics. In recent years we’ve seen characters from the comics played by actors of a different ethnicity than seen in the source material. The Kingpin, Perry White, and Heimdall come to mind, and there has been a growing acceptance among fandom to look beyond the surface and consider the quality of actors involved. The Fly coming as it did in the 1990s would have been pioneering had it starred Will Smith as the titular hero. What was the reaction like back then? Uslan: Will Smith was very excited. He had told me that he wanted to play Spider-Man and they looked at him like he was crazy and said, “Well Spider-Man’s not an African-American,” and that was the end of the discussion. Will saw the opportunity to do the Fly as a super-hero that he could do. PC: What was it like to work with not one, but two movie powerhouses in actor Will Smith and director Robert Zemeckis? Uslan: Zemeckis said he wanted to do it, but he wanted to develop it on his own—he didn’t want actors or anyone attached. CAA had to work this out and they finally said, “Develop it with Zemeckis, and then, when you’ve got it ready, Will Smith will be the first one you guys will take it to.” I worked with Bob and his crew, who were

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all absolutely wonderful people, and we worked on it for a long, long time. PC: What were your thoughts on the movie’s concept as development progressed? Uslan: Ultimately, there was a point in time where I felt it had gone off-track and thought it was too much concentrated on being a biting satire of contemporary society, contemporary living. I was used to a more traditional super-hero approach, but I understood that to make a $100 million movie, you had to find a vast international audience beyond that of comic book fans, especially in the 1990s. PC: During the development of the Fly movie, you commissioned a series of paintings by the famous Hildebrandt Brothers depicting the Fly in action and in battle (as well as Fly-Girl against feline felon Cat-Girl). What was it like to work with Tim and Greg? Did you offer them any editorial direction or did you just turn them loose to do their thing? Uslan: I was working with the Brothers Hildebrandt and they did several paintings of our take on The Fly, including the Fly World and how it would look, and modernizing his costume. It was a beautiful series of paintings. PC: At one time it was reported that Chris Rock was also attached to play the Fly. Is this true? Uslan: No. One of the things that gets blown out of proportion, especially in the Internet age, is that somebody sitting in a meeting may say, “Well, what about this guy to play the character?” And then it gets reported as if they wanted this guy, or this guy had been approached, or this guy had been signed, or they promised him… it gets contorted. Then, unfortunately, through the Internet over the years, a lot of that gets regurgitated until people think it’s all history, but a lot of times some of these things I’ve read about were nothing really much more than “Well, I’ll ask him,” or “What do you think of…” or “I’ll put in a phone call to his guys and see,” and a lot of it didn’t get well beyond that. It could have been talked about or kanoodled, but nothing was ever done to take that leap. PC: Did you ever option any of the other MLJ/Mighty Comics heroes for a movie? Uslan: I always wanted to do The Web. I actually optioned it and wrote two drafts of the screenplay for a movie. We had lined up the financing for it and then the company that was going to finance it went out of business. We were going to go ahead with that—I still have the script somewhere. It was really a lot of fun. PC: The Fly was your favorite as a child. Who is your favorite MLJ/ Mighty Comics hero now? Uslan: As an adult, as an historian of the Golden Age looking back, I loved some of the Mr. Justice stuff, I loved some of the Web stuff. I loved the Hangman stuff—I loved anything that Bob Fujitani drew. He had an eeriness. It almost looked like he had the same astigmatism that El Greco had, the way he rendered his super-heroes and villains; it was very eerie. I would say that group was more my favorites that I followed, in retrospect.

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The Fly (almost) Goes Hollywood

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An MLJ Hero in the Digital Age

The Archie Comics line had not published their MLJ super-hero characters for over a decade, since the late ’80s. After licensing the properties to rival DC Comics, in the new dot-com era, folks at the House of Archie noticed that one of their classic crime-fighting chums might make a perfect fit by promoting their line-up in a revolutionary medium that was taking over the planet by (digital) storm…

The Web Goes World Wide The Mighty Crusaders Make a Digital Comeback (of sorts) at www.archiecomics.com by Paul Castiglia In the late 1990s, Archie Comics began work on what would be their first attempt at an official website. My role was to develop content for the fledgling website. As the company was still a few years off from committing to a full-fledged comeback for the Mighty Crusaders in print, keeping the characters alive via a digital portal was the next best thing. There were several features on the Archie Comics website that perpetuated the classic heroes. Among those was an overview about the Mighty Crusaders which doubled as an introduction to new fans; “The ‘S’ Files,” a sort of “pot luck” collection of thoughts and articles relating to The Mighty Crusaders; the “Way ‘Un-Cool’ Dude of the Month,” spotlighting the Crusaders’ most memorable villains; and “Web of Intrigue,” a special feature highlighting stories featuring (who else?) the Web! This last feature existed because the Archie company had plans to exploit the Web character in an original online story (AJVB & The Web)—“AJVB” being an acronym for Archie, Jughead, Veronica, and Betty— as well as hopes for optioning the character to movie or TV producers. The

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thought was that the character could be updated so that the Web could cleverly—and quite literally—tie into the World Wide Web. This late 1990s attempt to revive one of the classic MLJ heroes was, for the time, novel indeed: the Web was brought back in a new story exclusively created for and appearing on the official Archie Comics website. Conceived and written by Chuck Grimes, who for a time became the chief executive officer of the Archie Entertainment Company (a shortlived offshoot of the publisher), the premise was “high

The MLJ Companion

“THE CLASSIC ARCHIE SUPERHERO, THE WEB RETURNS IN AN EXCLUSIVE ONLINE ADVENTURE— AS DEPICTED BY NEAL ADAMS! “The Archie superheroes have sprung back to life courtesy of the official, authorized Archie Comics website. Leading the charge is The Web, who is secretly John Raymond, criminologist! The Web has dedicated his life to fighting crime in all its forms… and, in a weird twist of fate, he finds himself in league with Riverdale’s renowned teens as they battle an evil computer virus out to destroy the world’s computers. Ironically, the Web must thrust himself head first into the World Wide Web itself—literally! Can

The MLJ Heroes in the Digital Age

Archie and crew help this legendary hero? Find out for yourself in a special exclusive online-only storyline called ‘To Save TomorrowNet!’ “This thrilling adventure is an outrageous, ongoing monthly serial. Fans will be able to read any given month’s installment, as well as retrieve episodes from months’ past. Following in the footsteps of the acclaimed Archie Meets the Punisher crossover with Marvel, this new story once again features art by one of the premiere Archie artists, Stan Goldberg, depicting the timeless teens—alongside bone-crunching panels by comics legend Neal Adams, who brings his super-heroic expertise to the visage of the Web!” Courtesy of Neal Adams, this spread features material drawn by the artist and his associates at Continuity Studios for Chuck Grimes’ ’90s online project AJVB & The Web.

Chapter Eight: An MLJ Hero in the Digital Age

concept.” As hyped in the original press release written by yours truly:

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The Archie Gang Joins the MLJ!

The failure of the Impact line caused DC Comics to let their license expire, and as the Millennium began, the publication rights were back at Archie. The company kept the characters alive through a series of guest-star appearances, and in 2009, Archie once again licensed the Mighty Crusaders and related characters to DC Comics, this time under a new “Red Circle” imprint.

MLJ Goes to Riverdale The Mighty Crusaders meet Archie & friends! by Paul Castiglia The 1990s and first decade of the new millennium were easily the most scattered time for the Mighty Crusaders characters. With projects ranging from a line of licensed comics (DC’s Impact imprint), to new retellings of the heroes’ origins via public service announcements in the style of Batman: the Animated Series, from archive collections reprinting vintage Crusaders stories, to the online-only Web/Archie crossover story, “To Save TomorrowNet,” the offerings were eclectic indeed. Adding to the variety of projects, and perhaps taking a cue from the online Web-Archie pairing, were a few attempts to integrate the Crusaders characters into the world of Archie and his pals ’n’ gals via team-up stories in the comic books.

conventions, and balloons of The Shield and other Crusaders characters even made it into a parade sequence from the unexpected-and-critically acclaimed Marvel-Archie crossover event, Archie Meets the Punisher. The first of the official team-ups came in a pair of issues of Archie’s Weird Mysteries. Based on the animated series of the same name, writer Paul Castiglia (that’s this writer) saw a natural opening to connect the Crusaders and Archie universes using the conceit that in Archie’s Weird Mysteries, anything could happen… and it usually did. The stories were drawn by fan-favorite artist Fernando Ruiz in the Batman: the Animated Series style.

There were baby steps leading to these team-ups. In the ’90s and early ’00s, Mighty Crusaders characters could be seen on Archie characters’ walls as poster art or on the covers of comics they were reading. Sometimes the Archie gang masqueraded as Mighty Crusader characters for Halloween (this happened in several stories, including a pair of Archie Halloween giveaway comics) and comic

Archie’s Weird Mysteries #3 [April ’00] began with Archie excited over filling holes in his Mighty Crusaders comic book collection… but those weren’t the only holes to contend with. It wasn’t long before a literal portal opened up into Archie’s world… a portal to a dimension where Archie’s favorite heroes were actually real! This story established a “substitute Crusaders” concept, wherein the wealth of MLJ/Mighty/ Red Circle characters could all become Crusaders as necessitated by the plot. It also combined the supernatural Crusaders to form an imposing—and ultimately triumphant—offshoot team.

At right, the Mighty Heroes grace the cover (likely by Fernando Ruiz) of Archie’s Weird Mysteries #3 [Apr. ’00]. Next page is a panel starring the Jaguar from Sabrina #30 [May ’02]. Art by Dave Manak and Jon D’Agostino. Words by Mike Gallagher.

In August ’01, the Crusaders returned in Archie’s Weird Mysteries #14. The ante was upped as the Eraser

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The MLJ Companion

The next team-up tale came in the pages of Sabrina #30 [Feb. ’02]. This version of Sabrina was based on the animated series that had spun-off from the live-action situation comedy. Sabrina and her cat, Salem, travel to South Africa where their friend Llandra’s parents are kidnapped by a perpetrator claiming to be the Rememberer from Incan mythology. However, it appears that the villain is getting help from none other than… the Jaguar himself ! Could it be so?! The answer is soon revealed as Sabrina and the Jaguar prove to be a victorious, heroic team. The action-packed tale was written by Mike Gallagher with art from Dave Manak.

The Archie Comics Index Adventures of the Fly Trade paperback 2004

Archie & Friends and the Shield Ashcan October 2002

Archie’s Weird Mysteries April 2000 #3

Archie’s Weird Mysteries August 2001 #14

Mighty Crusaders: Origin of a Super Team Trade paperback 2003

Sabrina May 2002 #30

The Shield: America’s 1st Patriotic Comic Book Hero

to get half-price admission, the teens thrill to their hero’s exploits. During the movie, we are treated to a retelling of the Shield origin, an adventure co-starring other Crusaders… and even an appearance by Dusty, the star-spangled hero’s Golden Age sidekick! In an online note to Mighty Crusaders fans, yours truly revealed, “Given the framework that this is ‘only a movie,’ I took a few liberties (as if having both Dusty and the Crusaders in the movie wasn’t liberty enough)! It gave me an opportunity to spoof how studios make changes in movies based on comics and the fans’ reactions to those changes.” Things came full-circle in 2007, with the Web again called upon to add spice to the Archie-verse, only this time his involvement came in the comics instead of online, and teaming up with Katy Keene. And… it wasn’t exactly the actual Web! In a pair of stories appearing in Archie & Friends #107 [Apr.] and #110 [Aug.], supermodel/actress Katy finds herself playing the female lead in a new super-hero movie based on The Web—with the hero being portrayed by a square-jawed, hammy stuntman.

Trade paperback In October 2002, Archie teamed 2002 up with Diamond Comic Distributors for the annual free Halloween-season giveaway comic. These popular mini-comics were often given away by retailers to their The conceit loyal customers. of both stories As mentioned is that the Web above, the may be the hero Crusaders made on-camera, peripheral but behindappearances in the-camera, it’s the prior Katy’s keen detective skills that come to the fore to save the day. Halloween giveaways, but with Archie & Friends and the Shield, The tales were reminiscent of the classic ’60s Web tales wherein the Crusaders—or namely, the Shield—took center stage, apthe henpecked hero’s wife, Rosie, donned a costume of her own pearing on 8 of the 12 story pages. The mini-comic served as a to become the super-heroine Pow Girl. An added attraction way to introduce readers to the trade paperback collection, The of the second tale is its comic con setting, as Katy and the Shield: America’s 1st Patriotic Comic Book Hero. It utilized the celluloid Web make a “personal appearance” to meet all their Archie’s Weird Mysteries creative team of writer Castiglia fans. Writer/artist Andrew Pepoy delivered both stories with and artist Ruiz. the fashionable flair Katy’s fans expected, while also In the comic, Archie and his friends are enjoying the providing a nice tip of the ink brush to Crusaders premiere of the Shield movie. Dressed in Crusader costumes fans everywhere.

The Archie Gang Joins the MLJ

Chapter Nine: The Archie Gang Joins the MLJ

created a device sending all of the Crusaders except Black Jack into limbo. Black Jack’s solution: travel back to Riverdale to recruit some real substitute Crusaders: Archie’s Super Teens! And their much-needed help was not just to rescue the other Crusaders, but also defeat the Monster Maker and his scary army of Monstroids, who joined forces with the evil Eraser!

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9 Paul Castiglia

Creator Chat

An Interview with

Conducted by Bradley S. Cobb [Editor’s Note: Besides being this book’s co-editor, Paul Castiglia is a comics writer, editor, and historian, who has worked for publishers including Archie, DC, and Dark Horse. He has researched and edited several paperback collections of vintage Archie comics stories, including twelve editions of the Archie Americana series and several other compilations, among them The Shield: America’s 1st Patriotic Comic Book Hero, The Adventures of the Fly, and Mighty Crusaders: Origin of a Super-Team. Paul co-edited the 1990s Archie’s Super Teens series of 48-page specials and was a writer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sonic the Hedgehog, DC Showcase, and Archie’s Weird Mysteries, the latter which featured two issues costarring the Mighty Crusaders. He also wrote a series of public service announcements starring the Crusaders and, for a time, oversaw and provided content for the Crusaders section of archiecomics.com.] Bradley S. Cobb: When did you first discover the Mighty Crusaders? Paul Castiglia: I graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 1988. It took me a good year-plus to get work in the comic book industry, which was highly competitive at the time. I received my first freelance work in the fall of 1989 writing puzzle pages for Looney Tunes magazine, which was published by DC Comics. While I was thrilled to become a professional, I realized that freelance checks alone would not pay the bills. So I started to do research on all the New York-based publishers, and this included buying several Archie comics and digests, which I previously never did except for the occasional impulse purchase as a child. At that time, the Mighty Crusaders were appearing in Archie digests in public service announcements promoting literacy. Just the sight of these heroes made me curious. From there, I tracked down back issues from the Red Circle period and cemented my fascination for these characters. In January of 1990, I got a full-time job at Archie Comics as the assistant editor to Scott Fulop, and my first task was to do research for the Archie Americana Best of the 1940s volume. The goal was to compile the earliest stories with the cast of Archie teenage characters, especially first appearances and any stories that really exemplified the decade of the 1940s. As I pored through classic issues of Pep and Laugh comics in search of these stories, I was treated to many super-hero stories, which were back-ups to the main Archie feature. These stories featured the Shield, the Comet, the Fox, Black Jack, Hangman, Mr. Justice, and others, and getting a glimpse of how these characters began made me even more interested in them. 248

BSC: How long have you been planning their return? Castiglia: That’s a tough question to answer— I’d say I’ve probably always held the notion of doing something with them from the time I walked through the front door at Archie, in January 1990. But the idea of revamping the characters to fit the Batman: The Animated Series mold really took fruition for me in 1998. At that time, it was decided to create public service announcements that would enable us to show the characters in print, which is a requirement for keeping trademarks active. We chose to have the characters rendered primarily in the Batman Animated style, although some of the artists that did the public service announcements veered slightly from the look. Within the next few months, the Archie’s Weird Mysteries (AWM) animated series was green-lighted and I campaigned for the job of writer for the comic book adaptation of the animated series. From the time I set my sights on AWM, I intended to get the Crusaders involved, if only for a story or two… Above is Jason Harris’s photo of Paul Castiglia, taken at the 2015 Chase Con (Saratoga Springs, New York). Next page top originally appeared in Archie’s Weird Mysteries #19 [Apr. ’02]. Inset is Archie’s Weird Mysteries #14 [Aug. ’01] cover by Ruiz and Koslowski.

The MLJ Companion

Paul Castiglia Interview

BSC: Were the Crusaders appearances well-received by the regular Archie’s Weird Mysteries readers? Castiglia: The AWM fans are very open-minded and vocal and thus far have unanimously embraced all the supporting and guest-characters that have appeared in the series, including the Mighty Crusaders. BSC: Did you study up on the MLJ character’s histories before writing their appearances? If so, how much study did you do? Castiglia: By the time I had an opportunity to write stories with the characters, I had already digested much of their history both in my pre-interview research of the Archie company, as well as during my search of early Archie stories for the Americana project. BSC: Opinion question: Which era of the Crusaders do you think was the best: MLJ, Mighty, Red Circle, Impact or Archie 2000? Castiglia: I cannot lay claim to one particular era being the best—they all have aspects to recommend them. That, plus [there’s] the fact that some of the characters excelled in eras when others did not (let’s face it, characters like Black Jack and Mr. Justice had the opportunity The Archie Gang Joins the MLJ

to shine in the 1940s but were virtually ignored in the 1960s; meanwhile, the Web was more clearly defined in the 1960s and less developed in the 1940s… and I can go on and on…). BSC: Another opinion question: Which character do you think holds up the best over the years? Castiglia: Again, I don’t think that one can easily pinpoint a character who exemplifies the Archie heroes. If you’re talking about the ones who are remembered the fondest, however, I’d say those honors go to the Shield, the Comet, the Fly, and perhaps the Jaguar. The Fly and the Jaguar especially made an impact having their own series in the 1960s, which predated and in no small part precipitated the Mighty Crusaders series. BSC: I know there has not been very many appearances yet, but do you find it harder to write one Crusader more than another? Castiglia: Strangely enough, I find it a little easier to write those which are secondary because I have more leeway to create my own mythology with those characters. I think Black Jack was all about attitude—the flippant persona— and I’m having fun with him because he clearly fights crime as much for kicks, 249

thrills and fun as he does because it is the right thing to do. The big guns—the Shield, Comet, Jaguar, Web—they have great histories that practically enable the characters to write themselves. I’d put Mr. Justice in the same camp. I think Steel Sterling is a character who can be fleshed out more, and some of the characters (like the Fire-powered trio of Fireball, Inferno, and Firefly) either have such convoluted histories, or barely histories at all, that writing them is like starting from a clean slate. BSC: Your thoughts/opinions on the Impact versions of the Crusaders and Company…? Castiglia: I was a big fan of the late, great Mike Parobeck’s artwork and, in fact, I feel that the blueprint for the Batman: The Animated Series style is not only found in the style of the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons of the 1940s and the character designs Alex Toth created for such Hanna-Barbera cartoons as Space Ghost, Birdman, and Super Friends, but that Parobeck’s art style on series such as Justice Society, El Diablo, and the Impact Fly series also provided a large influence. I think that his style was able to flourish more on the Impact Comics because the editors weren’t as restrictive as they most likely were with the top DC characters at the time, so he had room to stretch. So his art brought a vitality to the characters. I’ve also always admired writers like Mark Waid and Len Strazewski, who can tip their hats to the past and honor it by creating something new [yet] has the same feel. BSC: What part did you have in the visual redesigning of the 250

Crusaders (such as the C on the Comet’s chest instead of the arrow)? Castiglia: My main role in the art department was as a champion (and cheerleader) of the Batman Animated style (yes, I’m sounding like a broken record, but I find that style highly dynamic—it is a deceptively simple-looking graphic design). As far as costume changes go, some of those were requested by Justin Gabrie, editor of Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog comics, as well as the public service announcements and the first few issues of AWM. Also, some of the artists who worked on the PSA’s as well as AWM artist Fernando Ruiz would make various modifications to update the characters slightly. Of course, such changes for lower profile characters like Black Jack made the most sense—the biggest change for him being the bandana-style mask similar to 1970s Spider-Man villain, the Tarantula. BSC: How did the mini-origins come about? Castiglia: Archie has periodically done public service announcements over the years to perpetuate the trademarks of various characters. Since they were launching the archiecomics.com website, it was felt that the public service announcements would serve a double-purpose as the heroes were also part of the website. BSC: How did Jim Valentino become involved with the Crusaders mini-origins? Castiglia: Jim was involved in Sonic Super Special #7, which featured Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends meeting up with the heroes from Image Comics in a sanctioned team-up. It turns out Jim was a The MLJ Companion

longtime Crusaders fan and let this be known to Sonic editor Justin Gabrie (and if memory serves, the original story idea that writer Ken Penders had was to team Sonic with the Crusaders, but the opportunity arose for a crossover with Image, so plans changed). BSC: Jim Valentino gave a brief rundown of some ideas you two had discussed regarding a Crusaders revival (such as Comet being the original’s daughter). Did you have any actual story ideas to revolve around this new take on the heroes? Castiglia: It was all very, very preliminary… primarily, it involved the characters and their powers, personalities and motivations. No real story had yet been worked out. BSC: Where did Justin (editor of Sonic) fit into all this? Castiglia: Justin was the editor on the public service announcements, however, he wasn’t as directly involved in the planning and prep work Jim and I were doing—he was up to his neck in Sonic work and also was being courted by Sega at the time to join their company. BSC: How did Scott Rosema come into the picture? Castiglia: At that time, Archie had the license to do Hanna-Barbera comic books. One of the Hanna-Barbera Presents anthology issues featured an all-new adventure with intergalactic hero Space Ghost. Scott was doing some autographs at comic shops and I helped get comics shipped out to him for those signings. Over phone conversations, he mentioned his love for the Crusaders, and since the public service announcements were underway, naturally we tapped the all-too-willing Rosema as one of the artists to render the spots. BSC: Is Black Jack now considered the leader of the Crusaders? He seems to be such in both AWM appearances. Castiglia: Black Jack is not the leader of the Crusaders. In the proposal I have been working on for several years now, the Shield is the leader. This is following the form of teams like [the Justice League of America] and Avengers, where strong characters with great presence (i.e.: Superman and Captain America) preside—not to mention the red, white, and blue patriotic factor. There seems to be something inherently powerful about that. As has been the case in JLA comics as of late, the “leader” does have strong back-up from others who can lead just as well. I see the Jaguar and the Comet as possessing the leadership qualities necessary to substitute for the Shield if need be. BSC: Are there any plans for further Mighty Crusaders appearances, whether in AWM or in their own series? Castiglia: There are no immediate plans for the Crusaders to return in their own series, however, in the AWM universe, anything can happen. We’ve batted around the idea of creating Crusaders back-up stories in AWM, but there are space and [tonal] issues to consider, so it’s very iffy. I have very specific ideas for a Crusaders re-launch, some I’m sure fans will love and others they won’t. But the blueprint for the basic team is in Archie’s Weird Mysteries #14. I tried to write a story that would remain reverent to the characters while also incorporating This spread, from left, are the Red Circle Productions’ collections, The Mighty Crusaders [2003], The Adventures of the Fly [’04], and The Shield [2002], edited by Paul Castiglia.

The Archie Gang Joins the MLJ

Archie’s Super Teens into the mix in a logical—for AWM at least— way; not to mention having to keep pleasing fans of that team in mind as well. The core of the team will be the Shield, the Jaguar, the Comet, the Web, Steel Sterling, Black Jack, and Black Hood. In my proposed re-launch, one of these members won’t last for long, and will start a splinter group, the nature of which I won’t reveal at this time… You’ll also notice the phrase “alternate crusaders” in AWM #14. This refers to those characters not on the “first string” of the team. In my vision of the Crusaders, these characters will befall various fates, potentially creating even more splinter groups, and some may even turn bad. In fact, I have plans for three characters in particular that would probably keep your message boards buzzing for months! Last, but not least, I also plan to resurrect some unlikely characters from Archie/MLJ’s adventure past that will serve as Crusaders members as well as villains. BSC: You said you’ve been working on a Crusaders proposal for “years.” What caused you to decide to do this? Castiglia: I think that the appeal of the characters to all comics creators are that they are an alternative group to the more wellknown JLA and Avengers teams, and that there is more leeway to expand upon, revise and in some way create a mythology with the Crusaders. Most creators I’ve spoken with about the characters agree that the challenge is to maintain a reverence for what has come before while creating something fresh and exciting.

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INTERLUDE The Straczynski Effect

The era of celebrity writers brings Red Circle to DC by Jon B. Cooke Throughout the ’90s and ’00s, the owners of the Mighty Crusaders were, aside from a handful of “animated style” appearances in the Archie humor books, steering clear of the super-hero game and focusing mostly on the Riverdale gang and licensed books. But, ever amenable when offered a good deal, Archie Comic Publications, Inc., was happy to sign a new contract with DC Comics to once again rent out their crime-fighting characters to the rival company. “The idea was mine,” Dan DiDio (then DC editorial vice president) recently told this writer. “I was always looking to expand our line and wanted to take another pass at those characters.” He was searching for properties to widen their super-hero universe and so reached out to the respective owners of the Milestone characters, Condé Nast’s pulp headliners, and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents… and to invite the MLJ heroes back into the House of Superman. Of the Crusaders, DiDio told Andrew A. Smith in 2009, “These characters have a very long history, and we want to make sure we’re adding to that… My hope is that this is not a short-term agreement, [but] something that will have a long-lasting effect on the DCU.” Indeed, in contrast to the self-contained Impact Comics Universe of the early ’90s, this new MLJ resurrection would be fully integrated into DC’s super-hero universe. And the company executive wanted to offer the MLJ characters as enticement to an incoming superstar writer who had just finished an exclusive stay at the House of Superman’s top rival, Marvel Comics. By the ’00s, both DC and Marvel actively sought well-known writers from outside the field to add literary luster to their books, including luminaries Brad Meltzer, Andrew Vachss, Josh Whedon, and J. Michael Straczynski, who is best known as the creator and showrunner of the fondly recalled science-fiction TV series, Babylon 5. Straczynski had also written epic runs of Amazing Spider-Man and Thor, and also begun a limited series at the House of Ideas, The Twelve, which revived long dormant characters from the Golden Age of Timely, a premise that remained intriguing to the scribe as he ended a long, exclusive stint at Marvel. Bringing on the MLJ characters would also serve a useful purpose Taken at the 2013 Phoenix Comicon, at top is Gage Skidmore’s photo of J. Michael Straczynski, celebrity writer and architect of DC’s Red Circle line, which brought the MLJ characters into the DC Universe. Above is Jesús Saíz art originally intended for the aborted Brave and the Bold run that was to team up Batman with the Mighty Heroes.

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for the publisher. In his Comics Buyer’s Guide #1658 [Oct. ’09] article, Andrew A. Smith reported: “We went to Archie about this,” DiDio said in a phone interview. “This is something I was interested in for a while. … I just think these are all such strong characters and they still have untapped potential to them… There were some interesting designs, interesting ideas there on the page, and we wanted to see if we could realize them again and integrate them into the DC Universe, so they weren’t just their only little brand off in a corner but actually working and interacting with the DCU proper.” And some of the characters can plug holes at DC, he said, without having to start from scratch. “When they have a character as strong as the Shield, and we don’t have that patriotic parallel here in the DC Universe, we could go out and try to create one, but the Shield is probably the second-most recognizable flag-wearing character. So it’s great to be able to bring him into the DC Universe with all his history and established notoriety and then be able to work him into the stories we have got going on right now.”

The MLJ Companion

The initial idea was to roll out the MLJ characters in The Brave and the Bold, a Batman team-up title. A teaser image of the Darknight Detective duking it out with the Shield and Black Hood (as the Fly swoops in) was revealed at the 2008 Comic-Con International: San Diego. In October of that year, Straczynski shared about his interest with Comic Book Resources. “I grew up on the Archie characters, in particular the Fly and the Shield, which is why they’ll be the first two characters to show up in The Brave and the Bold. The key has been to research their initial origin stories and find ways to contemporize them without losing what made those origins work,” Straczynski told CBR News. “The stories we’ll read,” DiDio said to the Newsarama website, “will show Batman entering their world more so than they are entering into Batman’s. So Batman becomes our entry point into the world of the Red Circle characters, and we’re introducing them for the first time so we’ll know exactly who they are, what their motivations are, what their powers are, and more importantly, what their purpose in the DCU is.” Thus, the writer finished his initial B&B scripts, which included Batman team-ups with the Shield, Fly, and Black Hood, and the art by Jesús Saíz was in progress when Straczynski suddenly brought production to a screeching halt. “I wrote a couple of issues,” he confessed to Newsarama, “only to discover that I wasn’t serving either master very well. The Brave and the Bold stories were being sublimated into the Red Circle origin stories, and the RC stories were being given short-shrift in order to fit in with a story that has to be centered around two major DC characters. Instead of doing one thing well, I was doing two things poorly, which is kind of a record for me, to suck in two directions at the same time.” Straczynski continued, “So I told DC to shred the scripts, don’t even pay me for them, and to bill me for any artwork commissioned based on those scripts. That seemed fair since, after all, it was my responsibility to have seen that mistake before things got that far. I then checked with Dan [DiDio], and said, ‘Why don’t we take four of these characters and give them each a one-shot showing their origins, so we can spend the proper amount of time with them, and link them in a broader, almost existential sort of way?’ Dan said yes, and we were off to the races.”

sidekick Fly-Girl did appear in the DC Red Circle run.) The writer outlined to CBG the characters he did choose: “DC gave me total flexibility in which I chose to go with,” Straczynski said, “and I decided on those four characters that gave me the widest range, from the classic super-hero (the Web) to the more supernatural hero (the Hangman), the very American hero (the Shield) and a mystery hero (Inferno). I liked the symmetry of that. Once that decision was made, DC and the Archie folks gave me total creative freedom to go wherever the characters and the story wanted to go, which was great.” Playing off the imprint name, Straczynski was reaching for a certain spherical symmetry. In 2009, he told Newsarama, “I’m doing something kind of unusual (big surprise there). It’s almost the six-degrees-ofseparation thing… we start with the origin of the Hangman in the first issue, and track that from start to finish, covering the period from the Civil War to the present, then the last page brings him into an event that sets up the origin of Inferno, which we explore in more detail in Inferno’s book… the last page of which has brings him into an event that links it to the origin of the Web… and so on. They’re linked by event and circumstance in a way that sets the foundation for further connections. To add to the kind of experimental nature of the book, the last page of each book will be drawn by the artist of the next book (so page 22 of The Hangman is drawn by the artist doing Inferno, and so on). The last page of the last book is drawn by artist of the first book, and brings us back to where we started. So in storytelling terms, we create a circle, which reinforces the Red Circle title.”

Planned for sequential release over each of the four weeks of August 2009, DC hoped that the imprint—called “The Red Circle” for the oneshots—would do Impact Comics one better by (just maybe) finding (For whatever reason, though the character was redesigned by DC, a permanent the Black Hood was cut from the first string, and the Fly was axed place in the due to complexities involved in its ownership by Joe Simon… though DC Universe.

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The Crusaders Return to DC

In 2009, Archie once again licensed the Mighty Crusaders and related characters to DC Comics. Unlike the previous Impact line, DC chose to integrate the Red Circle heroes into their larger cosmos, so that they shared the same universe with such iconic characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash. The Red Circle project brought not just new heroes to the DCU, but a new writer as well, in J. Michael Straczynski. Originally, the plan was to introduce the characters through the DC team-up book The Brave and the Bold, but a series of one-shots was launched instead. Once again, the DC project failed to hold an audience, and the line was cancelled.

Into the DC Universe…

The Mighty Crusaders on Earth-S (as in Superman) [Editor’s Note: The following creator interviews were originally published in 2009, for promotion as the new DC series were about to launch, and should be viewed in that light.]

Rachel Gluckstern Conducted by Rik Offenberger [Editor’s Note: Rachel Gluckstern was an editor at DC Comics from 2010-2015. She worked in the Batman office and was the editor for the Red Circle line at DC Comics. This interview was conducted on Aug. 24, 2009.] Rik Offenberger: DC licensed all the Red Circle heroes from Archie Comics. Will we be seeing more of those heroes showing up in The Web and The Shield?

Rachel Gluckstern: Most definitely! And in the Inferno and Hangman co-features, too. With such a rich array of characters available, you can bet we wish to take full advantage of the opportunity to build up a new corner of the DC Universe. In that vein, I’d like to encourage readers to keep an eye out for the second wave of characters to cameo somewhere in issues #4–6 of both the Shield and Web. Each feature will have a new Red Circle hero popping up somewhere, but I’m not going to say where. It’s going to be like a scavenger hunt, and the prizes are the Black Hood, the Jaguar, the Comet and Mr. Justice! RO: Will we see some of the Red Circle heroes join existing teams, similar to the way Static Shock has joined the Teen Titans? Gluckstern: As the most public figure, the Shield will definitely clock some hours with existing DCU teams. I hear the JSA will be looking for some new members soon, and there’s a Kryptonian situation that the U.S. military is monitoring very carefully. The other three aren’t exactly team players, but they have some encounters waiting in their future for sure. RO: When will we be seeing some of the DCU heroes guest-starring in the Red Circle titles? Gluckstern: Pretty much right away! Inferno will run into both Green Arrow and Black Canary as he hits the road; the Web has a painful encounter with the new Batgirl coming up; and the Shield has to cross paths with former Marine Corps Officer Magog. It is the law. And I think we know just how well Army personnel and Marines tend to get along. Above is a custom-made “imaginary” Red Circle logo, concocted to resemble the ’60s DC “bullet.” At left is detail of The Red Circle: The Web, the DC Oct. 2009 one-shot. Art by Jesús Saíz.

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RO: Will there be some form of the Mighty Crusaders, where all the Red Circle heroes are part of a larger team? Gluckstern: That is the grand plan. The four Red Circle writers have been developing an excellent mythology together, building off J. Michael Straczynski’s foundation, and it’s all going to come together with a reason for the team to form. But as I said before, the Web, Inferno, and the Hangman aren’t really team players, and the Shield is still active in the army, so there aren’t exactly going to be hugs all around either. These guys shouldn’t be in the same room together without a damn good reason—and we’re going to give them one. RO: With co-features in the titles, how do you determine if the Hangman or Inferno are successful? Gluckstern: The same way we do for all the co-features—reader feedback and demand. I’m inclined to think that having two titles instead of four is a lot more reader-friendly, especially in these troubled times.

The DC Red Circle Index Green Arrow and Black Canary July 2009 #20

Justice Society of America April 2010 #36

MAGOG

June to August 2010 #8–10

Mighty Crusaders

September 2010 to February 2011 #1–6

Mighty Crusaders Special July 2010 #1

Red Circle: The Hangman October 2009 #1

Red Circle: Inferno October 2009 #1

Red Circle: The Web October 2009 #1

Red Circle: The Shield October 2009 #1

THE Shield November 2009 to August 2010 #1-#10

Superman July 2009 #688

THE Web

November 2009 to August 2010 #1-#10

situation right now, don’t you think? RO: Inferno was a minor villain turned hero in the original Red Circle universe. What brought him to the forefront instead of some of the other better known heroes? Gluckstern: I’m not sure what exactly appealed to JMS in that regard, but when reinvigorating a line, I think that there’s more freedom with minor characters, and it provides a nice balance to the heavy hitters like the Shield. I think we can all agree though that JMS does world-building like

Chapter Ten: The Crusaders Return to DC Comics

The Hangman… you never know who he’s going to meet or who he’s already met! Given how long he’s apparently been around the DC Universe, he probably knows more people than we realize right now, or knows who to avoid. Eventually, I would think that an immortal figure of supernatural ability and a bent for punishing the guilty might inevitably run into a certain wraith known for carrying out God’s vengeance. Possibly, maybe. It’s a shame you didn’t ask about any DCU villains showing up. But now, my lips are sealed!

Wonder Woman

July 2009 RO: With the Shield as the only patri#32 otic hero in the DCU, will we see him filling that role across the DCU? The Red Circle: The Hangman Gluckstern: Somehow, it sounds like Superman just got #1 [Oct. ’09] cover detail by artimpugned! I’m kidding; I know what you mean, and yes, that ist Jesús Saíz, a version created is supposed to be the Shield’s role in the larger DCU. And like I by writer/Babylon 5 showrunner said before, the U.S. military has a close eye on the Kryptonian J. Michael Straczynski. The Crusaders Return to DC Comics

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Rik Offenberger: This is your first ongoing assignment for DC; how did you get the job? Marco Rudy: Well, while working on Final Crisis: Resist, I got word that Greg Rucka’s co-writer, Eric Trautmann, was really enjoying my art and would like to work with me later, should the opportunity arise. Things went on and I got signed to draw the Final Crisis: Escape series with writer Ivan Brandon, which I loved! It gave me a unique opportunity to go crazy with storytelling in a very cryptic and weird storyline. I really enjoyed working with Ivan on that one. Eric was kind of “pulling the strings,” so to speak, to have me on board for either JSA vs. Kobra or The Shield, none other, and his instincts are always dead on. What Brandon and I was approached by editors at DC offering The Shield as my Jerwa has done with the character is fascinating and breathlessly fastfirst ongoing project at DC. I turned them down at first, since I paced. And the connection he’s uncovered between Inferno and the wanted to finish Escape but, in the end, there was no way to finish rest of the Red Circle heroes... oh, there I go, saying too much again. my take on Escape in time… and I took The Shield. And that’s that. RO: If both titles are successful, what is next for the Red RO: Had you been a fan of the Shield prior to Circle line? getting the assignment? Gluckstern: World domination, of course. Rudy: Aside from knowing that somehow We’d definitely like to have more charache inspired Captain America… no. ters get their own titles. Eric Trautmann has hinted strongly that writing the RO: Rachel Gluckstern is your editor Jaguar would make him gloriously on the series. What did she tell you she happy, and Brandon Jerwa has schemes wanted from the series? in mind for the Comet and even the Rudy: She basically told me “Glad Fox, if he gets the chance. Michael to have you on board, Marco. Have Uslan would kill me if I let anyone else fun!”… and eventually she told me, write Mr. Justice. But, of course, the big “Pages, Marco, pages… We need ’em. goal is a Mighty Crusaders book, and I Please pick up the pace!” think I’ll just hold a steel cage match to see who would work on that. RO: Irv Novick did the original character Seriously, the levels of excitement and indesigns for the Shield. How much freedom do vestment the creative teams have been exhibityou have with the design of the Shield in the ing for these titles are off the charts, and I hope that monthly comic? readers will feel that creative energy on top of the great Rudy: When I was invited to join the team for The Shield, I asked stories when they pick up these books. Because they’re excellent reads and a real fresh voice for the DC Universe, and I’m very happy if I could tamper with the costume a bit. I knew there had been a newer version of the Shield, as well as the classic Golden Age Shield. to be part of it all! I just felt that, with the tone of this book being more real-world military oriented, there could be a way to make the suit look super-heroic, still have the main idea, colors, but have a different “vibe” to it, more real-world. Conducted by Rik Offenberger

Marco Rudy

[Editor’s Note: Marco Rudy was artist on DC Comics’ version of The Shield from 2009–10.]

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At top is Marco Rudy’s designs for the Shield. Though J.G. Jones was originally enlisted to produce a useable design, Jones told Newsarama, “After a lot of effort, [writer] J. Michael Straczynski decided the original design was fine and…not to change it, after all.” Inset is a detail of Marco’s pencils from the assignment.

The MLJ Companion

Most people tend to cling to classic versions of heroes and discard any new attempts at renewing the characters’ costumes but, in this case, I just hope this comes out as a cool “new-age” version of the suit. I’m kinda handling it as if it was “Venom’s symbiote,” but a high tech one. You can see it in the “transformation,” and how it works. My first design had no white boots and gloves but, for the final version, I included them. RO: Aside from the costume, how are you going to differentiate the Shield from Captain America? Rudy: Well, their powers speak for themselves, and one thing I’m definitely approaching, even in storytelling, is the idea that this guy is a soldier in a high-tech suit. Sometimes we don’t even see him fully “transformed,” just the parts he needs to do his thing. Although the costumes share the same idea, even a similar color palette, they are different. The idea is to make him act, as I said, as a soldier in a suit. He is not in an armored-high-tech suit like Iron Man or Steel, it’s a much more slick thing. I would love to draw a scene with both characters though.

Initially, DC Comics decided to roll out the Red Circle characters in a series of unannounced, sneak cameos in its regular super-hero books. This panel from Wonder Woman #32 [July 2009], the only appearance of the MLJ hero in the story. Art by Aaron Lopresti and Matt Ryan.

already been ruminating on a lot of the things that I ended up incorporating into the Hangman, especially those pertaining to immortality. The fact that I’m accustomed to telling complete stories in such a short amount of pages on the various Cartoon Network titles I write was a plus. RO: Had you been a fan of the Hangman prior to getting the assignment?

RO: What type of reference material do you get for the Shield’s stories? Rudy: Rambo movies. Yeah, really: Rambo movies. Especially the second and the third ones. Eric Trautmann provides me with lots of Army references and I search for them as much as possible, for boots, vehicles, locations, etc. Everything comes from real-life stuff, like the war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Burma, for instance. I also use lots of movie reference, not just Rambo. Heck, I use Cowboy Bebop for a reference, so… yeah, I use lots of different reference sources. RO: Finally, and to end on a bit of a tease, in your first story arc, the Shield goes to Bialya, home of Black Adam. Visually how do you represent Bialya? Rudy: Well, I’m using a combination of source material. I gathered some from Bialya and Khandaq, and mixing that with what I gathered from both Iraq and Afghanistan, such as locations, villages, and people. That’s where Rambo 3 comes in handy… I also add in some Africa slums and villages to the mix, so what you see in the end is pretty much a salad with all those ingredients. Let’s hope it comes to a decent taste altogether.

John Rozum Conducted by Rik Offenberger [Editor’s Note: John Rozum was writer on the Hangman co-feaure appearing in DC Comics’ The Web, from 2009–10.] Rik Offenberger: How did you get the job on Hangman? John Rozum: Another project I was supposed to be writing for [editor] Rachel Gluckstern fell through at the last minute, and she offered me the Hangman as a replacement. It’s actually a good match, since both projects have some overlapping elements. I’d The Crusaders Return to DC Comics

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and creating a mythology for the Hangman, which will eventually explain the source of his powers and his place in the [DC] Universe. RO: Originally the Hangman was a caped crime-fighter with no super powers, fighting crime to avenge the death of his brother. It appears that in the new Red Circle, the Web stole Hangman’s origin. Is there anything retained from the Golden Age Hangman? Rozum: Probably not too much. I plan to revisit certain elements, such as his projecting a gallows to announce his arrival, but that may not be a regular feature. Other things will come back, such as some of the villains including the Ugly Man and the Jackal. These characters will retain more of their core essence than the Hangman did, but these will not be slavish reproductions of the original villains either. These are new characters as well, adapted to fit the needs of the new series, though they will share some physical characteristics and some behavioral traits with the original characters. Having said that, I don’t think that fans of the original characters will be outraged by any of the changes. The changes were made in a manner respectful to, both, the original characters, and to their fans. I think the fans will find them true in spirit to the original characters. I think they will also be intrigued by the new version of the Hangman, and pleased by his new powers. I would say that, at least with the Hangman, the approach is not dissimilar to how Golden Age characters such as the Flash and Green Lantern were revived in the Silver Age; the names were the same and there was some similarity of powers and costume elements, so that there was a link between them, but the characters themselves were all new and catered to a new era. RO: The Hangman has been around since the Civil War. Has he moved along with the times, or is he culturally out of place with the other characters? Rozum: He’s made every effort to not stand out, and to change Rozum: Aside from having seen some of the covers from Special Comics and the like, I did not know much about the character prior to taking on this project. This was probably for the best since the character had been stripped down, streamlined, and restructured by Joe Stracynski. With no real familiarity with the original character, I was not conflicted with trying to make the new character mesh with any affection I might have had for the old. RO: Rachel Gluckstern is your editor on the series. What did she tell you she wanted from the series? Rozum: Rachel Gluckstern and I talked about it quite a bit before I began, and continue to do so. She’s a really good editor, and has provided a lot of good ideas and really done a great job of getting me started on this. RO: Joe Stracynski said he left a “bible” for writers of the ongoing series. What type of notes did Joe leave for you as the incoming writer? Rozum: Beyond his two-page bible, most of which appeared in the issue he wrote, not too much. I essentially took what he did and used that as a starting point and began developing new ideas Renowned artist J.G. Jones was tapped by DC Comics to produce character designs for the Red Circle characters the publisher was integrating into the DC Universe. On this page and next are Jones’ renditions of Inferno and the Black Hood. An entertaining and informative interview with the artist about this 2009 assignment can be found at www. newsarama.com/2740-j-g-jones-redesigning-the-red-circle.html.

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with the times. Obviously, some social changes were probably more difficult for him to cope with than others, but he’s lived through all of the years between the 1830s and the present. He’s not simply a displaced visitor from another time. His home is not filled with relics of the past, though he does have some paintings and such which connect him to his time living in the American West of the mid-19th Century. Even though he is a participant in the world around him, because he’s stopped aging as a thirty-something-year-old man and not a twenty-something-year-old man, he remains just outside of culture enough to have been more of an observer than a participant. Physically, he’s always too old to participate in the culture of youth as it is being shaped and formed, like someone’s parent trying to make sense of the music, or pop culture, of their children. He has an odd time connecting with people on this level conversationally. A lot of people bond over childhood nostalgia: TV shows we watched, games we played, toys we had; but since Dickering’s childhood was in the 1830s, he has nothing to relate to. He didn’t spend his childhood watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons or playing with G.I. Joes or Star Wars action figures. Instead, he takes his knowledge of past decades and turns it into a hobby, an interest, so that he can connect with people on a level that he’s comfortable with, without it making him seem too strange. What makes his life most difficult, in any time period, is having to adjust his life to accommodate his automatic transformations into the Hangman at sunset and back into Robert Dickering at sunrise. He has some issues with being human, yet apart from humanity, and a reluctance to become close to anyone, Dickering is a friendly, emotive, and romantically inclined individual. RO: The Hangman is a supernatural character, so does he crossover with the other magic-based characters in the DCU? Or is the “Red Circle” separate? Rozum: For now, I’m keeping the Hangman in his own little corner of the DCU by himself. At some point he’ll no doubt meet some of the other supernatural characters in the DC Universe, as well as some of the non-supernatural costumed crime fighters. There are a number of DC’s characters who lived in the 19th and early 20th Centuries that I’d like to pair him with. In fact, we’ll see him with one such character, briefly, in the second issue. Beyond this brief scene, it will be a while before we see further team-ups. I think it’s better initially to allow readers to get to know this unfamiliar character on his own terms before we start loading the book with guest stars. As for the other Red Circle characters, Rachel Gluckstern has initiated an effort for us to keep each other informed on what we are doing and where we are going so that we can intersect, keep off of each other’s toes, and build up a little pocket world within the DCU. At this stage, I think we’re all still trying to get our heads

The Crusaders Return to DC Comics

around what we are doing with our individual characters and not quite ready to start overlapping our stories. I’m sure that will start happening once we all feel more comfortable with what we are doing. RO: The Hangman travels the Earth, saving the lives of innocents and hastening the deaths of the guilty. How is he different from the Spectre? Rozum: That was one of the first questions I had, and the answers were something I had to work out, so it’s something that will be addressed in the series. There are numerous differences but, in a nutshell, the Hangman always offers retribution first. He uses his powers to scare those he sees as being on a path to damnation into giving up their evil ways and going straight. In some cases this is enough. For others, if they don’t heed his one and only warning... it’s something you’ll be able to witness firsthand early in the series. Unlike the Spectre, the Hangman’s other half, Robert Dickering, has 259

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a life of his own, and none of the powers of the Hangman. Unlike other characters with that dichotomy where they transform into another identity driven, or cursed, with a task to perform, Dickering is Conducted by Rik Offenberger also under that same curse. Just as the Hangman must go out and aid [Editor’s Note: Eric Trautmann was the writer of DC’s The Shield the innocent and punish the guilty, Dickering must labor all day savseries from 2009–10.] ing the innocent as well. His life is one of constant toil towards the needs of others with little or no time for his own needs. The wear of Rik Offenberger: Had you been a fan of the Shield prior to getting the this is constant, and the way he reacts to it changes over time, too. assignment? Eric Trautmann: I like the idea of the character a bit more than how RO: What do you have planned for the Hangman long term? he’s been used in the past. Obviously, he’s a character with history Rozum: I don’t want to give away too much, but there are three and that appeals to me—he’s got all that great, resonating imagery, areas that attracted me to the project and where I’ll be emphasizing but my exposure to the really old Red Circle stuff is minimal. It’s too my efforts. The first is the human element. What does it mean for hard to find. Robert Dickering to be someone who will never die, and who is When the Impact line reintroduced the character years ago, I read forced to divide his life with a supernatural aspect that he transforms those and liked them, but I must confess to being more enamored into every night? The second thing is the backstory. The story of of some of the other Impact books, especially The Comet, The Black Robert Dickering begins in the 1830s and, for the Hangman, it’s Hood (Rick Burchett—always loved his work, and I’d kill for a 1864, so there are about a century-and-a-half of stories to fill in and chance to work with him) and The Jaguar. I’m really looking forward to doing that. A lot of changes took place in that period of time, and it will be fun to see how both Dickering RO: Rachel Gluckstern is your editor on the series. What did she tell and the Hangman find a way to fit in to all of those time periods. you she wanted from the series? Finally, I’ve created a mythology that explains the source of the Trautmann: Well, Rachel Gluckstern is also my editor on JSA vs KoHangman’s powers, and how the Hangman fits into the world. I’m bra, and she’s given me very clear direction on what DC is looking really looking forward to slowly revealing this mythology as the for from the book, but I’ve largely been given a pretty free hand to series progresses. 260

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develop the stories. Mostly, she has the unenviable task of poking me with a stick from time to time so pages will spill out, and enduring my occasional descents into madness. “No, Eric, the Shield cannot fight the Tiny Titans. Take your medicine.” That kind of thing. The poor woman. RO: Joe Stracynski said he left a “bible” for writers of the ongoing series. What type of notes did he leave for you as the incoming writer? Trautmann: I received a “character springboard” which detailed enough of the character to have an idea of who he is, and what he does, while still being wide open enough to allow me some room to develop the material, to bring my own warped aesthetic to it all. And the scripts for the Red Circle series, which are pretty clear delineations of the character. RO: Although the Shield came before Captain America, most fans don’t know that. In writing the Shield how are you going to differentiate the Shield from Captain America? Trautmann: For one, I don’t plan on having him murdered by an assassin’s bullet. Ahem. The primary difference is, to my mind, that Cap—Steve Rogers, anyhow—is very much of his period; he’s still a mid-20th century man. Joe Higgins, the Shield, is a contemporary man, without the years of history behind him that Cap has. He’s also still an active duty military officer, and I intend to write him as such. He’s a super-hero, sure, but with a specific mindset that’s a bit different from Cap’s, I think. RO: DC doesn’t have a popular Patriotic hero. Will the Shield be filling the role or be on his own out of the country? Trautmann: I don’t see the two as being mutually exclusive. He’s a symbolic hero, for sure, and that’s a symbol for his own countrymen, but also as a living embodiment of the American ideal abroad, as well. That said, the early stories aren’t going to be focused too heavily on the DCU’s North America. I hope to send him around the globe quite a bit.

Comic Book Day 2007. I had been asked to do a signing at Olympic Cards & Comics in Lacey, Washington—a great store that just happens to be owned by Eric Trautmann’s wife, Gabi. I met Gabi, Eric, Greg Rucka, Jen Van Meter, and Matthew Clark that day, and some friendships blossomed. Eric and I had a sort of instinct that we RO: What makes Lt. Joe Higgins want to be the Shield instead of the should be working together, and eventually started pursuing some best G.I. he can be? ideas, one of which ended up being our new free webcomic Wide Trautmann: Spoiler territory! Higgins has a certain vested interest Awake. in the Shield identity; there’s also the fact that he’s an American milCut ahead to last year: as Checkmate was wrapping up, Eric was itary officer, and he’s been given, essentially, orders to fill this role. asked to pitch some material to the amazing Queen of All Editors, He’s a good soldier, so he’s going to follow those orders. Joan Hilty, at Vertigo, and he asked me to co-pitch with him. The winning pitch was greenlit for an original graphic novel that I can’t RO: Fair enough. Finally Eric, what do you have planned for the talk about yet, but let me give you my personal assurance that it’s Shield long-term? awesome. Trautmann: A lot of action, a lot of globetrotting, and a lot of faAs things progressed, I was lucky enough to have Eric, Greg, and miliar threats and some new faces as well. Two-fisted military action. Joan all singing my praises to DC, a fact that I am eternally grateful for. I guess someone was listening, because I was approached by Rachel Gluckstern about Inferno via e-mail on the Friday of this year’s Emerald City Comic-Con, and Michael Siglain in person about Conducted by Rik Offenberger working for DC in general the following day. As nerve-wracking as it’s been to start this process, I can’t say [Editor’s Note: Brandon Jerwa was the writer of the Inferno co-feaenough how enjoyable it’s been thus far. I think I have a great ture which appeared in DC’s The Shield series from 2009–10.] rapport with Joan (and superstar assistant editor Sarah Litt), and Rachel and I are settling into a groove very nicely. I’ve been waiting a Rik Offenberger: How did you end up at DC? long time for this opportunity, and I hope it’s just beginning. Brandon Jerwa: I can actually trace this to a specific day: Free

Brandon Jerwa

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RO: Had you been a fan of the Inferno prior to getting the assignment—or did you even know about the character? Jerwa: I was familiar with the character, but not a hardcore follower of that universe particularly… although I did have all the Mighty Crusaders action figures back in the ’80s! RO: What was the premise or direction you were given for the series? Jerwa: The basic directive was “Jason Bourne on fire” and I was tasked with turning it into a fast-paced action thriller. I’m a big fan of that genre, so I’m digging in deep and doing my best to take it to the level it deserves.

can’t turn his life around until he figures out what his life is exactly. RO: As the solicitations state, Green Arrow and Black Canary show up in the very first story. With a co-features’ limited pages, do guest stars hinder storytelling? Jerwa: It was my choice to use them, as it’s logical to the story. It didn’t really hinder things at all… and can I just say how exciting it was to write those two in my first script? I mean, come on—it’s Ollie and Dinah!

RO: That said, how much of the Inferno story crosses over with the DCU and how much of the “Red Circle” is separate? RO: Joe Stracynski said he left a “bible” for writers of the ongoing series. Jerwa: The Red Circle characters are definitely in the DCU, and we’ll be playing with that in The Shield/Inferno a bit, while What type of notes did Joe Stracynski leave for you as the incoming still keeping their stories individualized. In fact, Eric and I are writer? exploring some connections between the worlds of our characters Jerwa: It’s funny, because I wrote my pitch with only the script for the Inferno chapter of JMS’ mini-series; I didn’t have the additional as well, so I think it’s going to be a really rewarding experience for the readers. notes that clarified his intent in terms of the bigger picture. The pitch I turned in did something pretty drastically different from what JMS intended, but my basic over-arcing story was still compat- RO: Frank Verrano is physically different from Inferno. Is this a transible with that unseen information, so Rachel gave me the scoop and formation like Billy Batson to Captain Marvel or are Frank and the asked me to re-jigger things a bit. One more pass, and we were good Inferno different people? to go. Jerwa: The Magic Eightball says, “Ask Again Later.” Seriously, that’s the million dollar question, and a big part of the story. RO: Originally Inferno was a circus fire breather and a criminal who RO: Fair enough, well, to leave with a tease, what do you have planned with the help of Steel Sterling turns his life around. How does this Inferno turn his life around? for the Inferno long term? Jerwa: This is definitely a tale of discovery and redemption, but it’s Jerwa: I have a super-detailed outline for the first twelve issues. Beabout as far away from fire-breathing circus performers as you can yond that, I have a pretty good idea what I’d like to do in the second get. I can’t say too much at the outset, but let’s just say that Inferno year, but I’m focusing on the immediate future first and foremost. 262

The MLJ Companion

Across this spread are character designs for the “Red Circle” incarnations of the classic MLJ characters, including Mr. Justice and the Comet by Duncan Rouleau, the Black Hood by Talent Caldwell, and the Jaguar by Marco Rudy.

I’ve written 80-odd comic books at this point, but this is my first super-hero story. I’m planning to enjoy writing every page of it.

Tom Derenick Conducted by Rik Offenberger

before I started drawing it I really got into the ideas in it. RO: Joey Cavalieri is your editor on the series. What did he tell you he wanted from the series? Derenick: Well, it’s not exactly a Hangman series. Red Circle is a group of interconnected one-shots. They stand alone very well, but fit together beautifully for a bigger picture. I only draw the Hangman and a page in The Shield, but I’ve read all the scripts and I was impressed.

[Editor’s Note: Tom Derenick was the penciler on DC Comics’ version RO: J.G. Jones did the character designs for some of the Red Circle of the Hangman which ran as a co-feature in a series of comics from heroes. How much freedom do you have with the design of Hangman 2009–2010.] in the monthly comic? Derenick: I did change J.G.’s look slightly. My Hangman’s a bit beefRik Offenberger: How did you get the job on Hangman? ier and his cloak and belt have been altered. Just little tweaks. He’s Tom Derenick: Joey Cavalieri called me up and asked me if I’d be essentially J.G.’s design but made to work better in my drawing style. doing one of the Red Circle books, and when you get a chance to work with J.M. Straczynski, you don’t turn it down. RO: What type of reference material did you get for the Hangman RO: You have a long history with Golden Age hero revivals, going back to your days on The Protectors. Had you been a fan of the Hangman prior to getting the assignment? Derenick: I was aware of him, but I never read any of the comics. So, no, I wasn’t a fan. RO: Would it be safe to say with all the changes, “This isn’t your father’s Hangman”? Derenick: As I said, I hadn’t read the old Hangman stuff. The new version seems like a JMS-style tweak much like he did with Squadron Supreme. I have to say though after reading the script and even The Crusaders Return to DC Comics

stories? Derenick: I pulled together a group of Civil War reference books. The first chunk of the one-shot follows that time period.

RO: After working on Shadowpact and Reign in Hell, have you become the supernatural guy at DC? Derenick: It does seem that way sometimes, but no. If I were to label myself at DC it’s the “books with a million people in them” artist. Seems more like I’m drawing the most populated books more than anything. Love drawing for DC though. The company’s been great to me.

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INTERLUDE Full Circle at DC Comics The Mighty Heroes retreat back home… yet again by Jon B. Cooke In Feb. 2010, early on during the Red Circle run at DC Comics, Vice President Dan DiDio, the creative exec who ushered the line-up, ascended to become co-publisher of the company. In a congratulatory announcement, Jon Goldwater, the joint chief executive officer of Archie Comic Publications, sent his kudos and added, “Archie is thrilled with the job that DC has done with our Red Circle super-heroes and couldn’t be happier [about Jim Lee and DiDio’s promotions]….” Alas, over the next few months, the writing was on the wall and, by December, the last of the Red Circle titles, The Mighty Crusaders, was on the chopping block. Earlier, DiDio had expressed to Newsarama, “What I’m hoping for is that people get excited by them, and then we can grow out and tell more stories with these characters.” Yet, despite a promotional blitz and integration into the regular DCU line, as well as the involvement of writer J. Michael Straczynski, RC conceptualizer, and artist J.G. Jones, designer of many RC characters, not enough excitement was generated. By the end, Newsarama contributor Vaneta Rogers asked DC for comment about the line’s cancellation, but there was no official word, so she asked two of its creators for a post mortem on the demise of Red Circle. Mighty Crusaders co-writer Eric Trautmann said, “One of the 264

goals I had for the series was to see how far we could push the general level of weirdness and very classic two-fisted superhero action; I think Brandon executed on that magnificently.” In retort, Trautmann’s Red Circle writing partner, Brandon Jerwa, shared, “Always with the humility and compliments, this one. It was teamwork all the way. We had to take the classic idea and work it from both ends; we go big and go home, with alien invaders, pocket dimensions, family drama, crazy huge boom-boom, and the most important thing: resolution.” Asked about whether the writers had achieved any objectives they had set for themselves, Trautmann said, “I can’t speak to higher-level goals; that’s the province of the publishers. For me, I wanted to tell a certain kind of story, and I was fortunate enough to be able to do so, on The Shield, and then The Mighty Crusaders Special, and the [Crusaders] mini-series. I wanted to take these fairly familiar archetypes and push them in directions that made sense, honored the source material and the work of creators who preceded us, and still deliver some surprises and shocks along the way. So, in that sense, yes, I think our goals have been met.” Jerwa added, “This is the end of the Mighty Crusaders story, but it’s also the last chapter in the story we’ve been writing from Day One with The Shield and Inferno. We’ve tried our damnedest to offer some payoff for the folks who were with In contrast to the Impact Comics line of the ’90s, DC made the decision to include us when we started, and do right the MLJ heroes into their DC Universe continuity, initially in a series of cameos. by the fine work of [fellow RC The MLJ Companion

writers] Matt Sturges, John Rozum, and Angela Robinson with their own respective characters. I like to think that we managed to put a pretty bow on the package. “Did we get around to doing everything we originally wanted or intended to do? No. Did we manage to bring it all together with a story we love and take great pride in? You bet.” Michael Avon Oeming’s

When Rogers character designs for the Fox. asked the scribes what they wished might happen next to the Red Circle characters, Jerwa replied, “My wish is pretty selfish, I have to admit. I’d love to see these characters stay in the DCU—maybe digitally, since the print numbers just haven’t been there, sadly—and I’d love to continue building their universe alongside people I enjoy working with. Hey, I dream big.” Rogers then asked, “Do they fit into the DCU? And where do you see each of them fitting?” And Jerwa offered, “I think they’re fantastic super-heroes who have amazing adventures and emotional accessibility. They also truly stand for something. So I guess my answer would be a resounding yes to that one.” Added Trautmann, “Certainly, at the outset of the various Red Circle stories, our group mandate was to wed these characters to the DCU. I think that the Crusaders fill a fairly empty niche in the DCU—a government-sponsored super-team, proactive and not mired in corruption, nor cookiecutter ‘super-soldier’ types. I’d love to see them continue on in the setting, as they each have interesting stories yet to be told.” As a final assessment, Jerwa declared, “This is a labor of love, and it’s no bull when I say that I’ve never had more fun working on a comic book. If you get a chance to spend a day reading our Mighty Crusaders series—or, better yet, the entire Red Circle epic starting with the [ J. Michael Straczynski] oneshots and moving into The Shield and The Web—I hope you enjoy this universe we built for really nothing more than the sake of loving comic books.”

Book Resources website, opined about the Red Circle series, “The problem is that I don’t really believe this story is part of the DC Universe. I don’t buy it. The story makes its attempts at integrating the characters and team into the world of Superman and Batman (even though those characters don’t appear), but it doesn’t feel genuine. It feels like an attempt to make this series more appealing to readers, but there’s no real sense that the Mighty Crusaders exist in a world filled with costumed characters other than the ones that appear here [in their title]. Sure, the characters might allude to General Zod, but, really, this is a series that won’t make a dent on DC continuity and we all know it.” Perhaps, in the end, that was exactly the problem with readers regarding Red Circle. In DC looking for a version of Captain America to call their own, the Archie super-heroes was just too ill-fit to establish a niche within the continuity. But the effort was valiant and the creative executive who hoped the characters would have a longer stay recently responded. Dan DiDio lamented, “Because I had J. Michael Straczynski interested in working on the Red Circle characters, I thought it would be worth the risk. Unfortunately it was not meant to be.” In July 2011, during a Facebook “virtual panel” prior to the San Diego Comic-Con, the co-publisher dropped the bombshell on Red Circle comic book fans and shared what most MLJ aficionados had long suspected: DC Comics had no plans to renew the license on Archie’s super-hero characters. The line was officially kaput. Soon enough, by 2012, Archie Comic Publications was exploring avenues to resurrect the characters. These MLJ heroes just can’t quit.

Timothy Callahan, reviewer for Comic

Renowned cartoonist Michael Avon Oeming, riffing on the 1980s’ Alex Toth version of the Fox, drew a back-up series, written by Brandon Jerwa, in The Shield #7 [May 2010]–#10 [Aug. ’10]. The cartoony rendition would continue, courtesy of Dean Haspiel, in the subsequent Red Circle/Dark Circle lines that followed the DC run.

The Crusaders Return to DC Comics

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Red Circle’s Fox & New Crusaders

After the second failure of DC Comics to find success with the MLJ super-heroes, Archie Comics once again welcomed home their characters and, with the arrival of former pop music manager Jon Goldwater, son of founder John L. Goldwater and now co-chief operating officer, a progressive decision was made to explore new modes of distribution and formats for the comics line. A brighter future just might be found in the book trade with new formats, including trade paperbacks, children’s books, and reaching audiences through the Internet with e-book sales. “It’s about demand,” Goldwater told Publisher’s Weekly, in 2013. The Archie line is “seeing steady growth in print and digital. They both feed off of each other. It’s a win-win.” Naturally, the MLJ super-heroes would be part of any digital subscription service.

Digitizing MLJ’s Heroes Making a niche in the new publishing paradigm by Jon B. Cooke The announcement coming from the publisher was big enough to receive notice from the most prestigious newspaper in the country. Archie Comics was getting into the digital comics game with material specifically created to be downloaded through a new app. New York Times senior editor George Gene Gustines reported, on Oct. 9, 2011: At the New York Comic Con this week, Archie Comics will reveal its next step in the digital frontier. In spring, the company will bring back its line of super-hero characters in a subscription model that will offer an original six-page story and access to an archive of past adventures. “It’s very exciting to be creating the first brandnew digital comic book label,” said Jon Goldwater, the co-chief executive of Archie Comics Publications. Besides the possibility of reaching an audience beyond the comic book stores, there was a second advantage to this digital model. “Financially, it makes sense,” Mr. Goldwater said. “We are not going to have any print costs. To be a slave to printing prices when you’re starting a new venture is a tremendous concern.”

According to the Times, the publisher had entered the digital realm in 2008, and so, by 2011, “Between comics available for free, and those that have 266

been purchased, Archie is closing in on three million downloads.” With such success for their digitized print archives, publisher edict came down to produce new material specifically for the digital marketplace through a new Red Circle tablet/smart phone app. Thus was developed the concept of New Crusaders. “The premise of the digital series,” writes Gustines, “begins with the [MLJ] heroes largely in retirement in a suburb called the Red Circle. Their enemies find and dispatch the heroes, forcing the next generation, who will be overseen by the Shield, to save the day, thus paving the way for the New Crusaders….” To infuse the series with an all-ages appeal, the creators— Archie higher-ups, writer Ian Fleming, and artist Ben Bates—found inspiration in the Pixar movie, The Incredibles. “They are not going to be water-downed super-heroes,” Goldwater said, “but they are not going to be dark either.” Archie Comics President Mike Perellito told Comic Book Resources, “My kids love super-heroes and Archie and all this stuff, but I can’t give them most [contemporary] super-hero books. This new series is for Daddy, but I can leave it out, and my six-year-old can also pick it up,

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The Red Circle Print Comics Index THE FOX

December 2013 to April 2014 #1–5

The Times revealed the model for the Red Circle app was a phenomenally successful movie streaming service:

NEW CRUSADERS PREVIEW October 2012 No number

Archie’s latest digital initiative will be similar to Netflix, Mr. Goldwater said. “It will be a nominal monthly charge with access to new comics and thousands and thousands of pages from the archive.” That trove of material will include stories that have not previously been reprinted. But the archive is meant to enrich the

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October 2012 to March 2013 #1–6

NEW CRUSADERS: BOOK 1 RISE OF THE HEROES Trade Paperback 2013

NEW CRUSADERS: LEGACY Trade Paperback 2013

reading experience, not bog it down. It was important to give subscribers a full story that was not mired in decades of continuity, Mr. Goldwater said.

Archie Publicity and Marketing Manager Alex Segura was enthusiastic about the new format. “This is our next step,” he told CBR. “It’s new super-hero content in a digital-only format, and it’s really a whole new imprint. You download the Red Circle app, and you get new comics by two of our best creators [Fleming and Bates], some classic stuff by everybody from Joe Simon to Alex Toth to Gray Morrow… It’s very much

Red Circle Comics’ The Fox and New Crusaders

an immersive experience. Say we reintroduce the Fox in chapter eight. We’ll then upload ten or twelve old Fox stories so you get a sense of who the character is. It’s not just one new title. It’s a whole new arm of the company.” Indeed, New Crusaders featured characters with close familial ties to classic MLJ heroes. Greg Dickering is the Comet, adopted son of the original hero. Fireball is the nephew of the first Fireball. Fly-Girl is the illegitimate daughter of the initial Fly-Girl and the newest version of the Fox. Jaguar was reared by her namesake. Steel Sterling is—you guessed it—son of the first one. And Web II is the offspring of suburbanites Web I and Pow Girl.

The plan was for a new sixpage episode of New Crusaders to appear each week, some chapters connected, some not. Writer Ian Flynn told CBR, “A lot of stories will be like taking each act as a bite-size installment, while others will be stand-alone vignettes to flesh out the past and the world. This puts the choice in the customer’s hands. You have the option to follow week-to-week, episode-toepisode, or season-to-season!” In a 2012 review of the Red Circle app, Comics Alliance website’s Chris Sims explained, “The core idea is that the 99¢ weekly subscription fee gets you six brand new pages of comics every week. Those of you with an aptitude for math will have already worked out that this essentially means that you’re paying $3.97 a month for a 24-page comic, which is about what an independent super-hero book will run you at your local comic shop.” By the release date of mid-May, 2012, Archie Comics reconsidered the “digital-only” restriction for the Red Circle Comics and print editions of New Crusaders were available in comic shops (albeit initially appearing first through the app). By the end of the first mini-series, titled “Rise of the Heroes,” New Crusaders would take on an increasingly darker hue, more in tone with its competitors’ lines and belying the company’s promise to keep the title lighter and more approachable to kids. In fact, the final issue of the story arc features the murder of a main character, shifting the atmosphere of the subsequent storyline, “Dark Tomorrow,” to downright gloom. (So much for Previous page features a detail from Dean Haspiel’s cover for The Fox #1 [Dec. 2013]. This page is artist Ben Bates’ pin-up art of The Shield for the series New Crusaders, initially a digital-only title for the short-lived Red Circle app. In short order it was decided to release print versions of the latest MLJ incarnation.

Chapter Eleven: Red Circle’s The Fox and New Crusaders

and I don’t have to freak out about Batman having sex with Catwoman. You know, the Shield will beat up a bad guy, and he might go on a date, but it won’t be too freaky. It’s entertaining and interesting.”

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world. In Summer ’12, Lost Crusade: The Untold Stories of the World’s Greatest Heroes was announced, a series of short stories (that would first be released digitally, interspersing the New Crusaders episodes). The series delved into the past lives of the original Mighty Crusaders, drawn in a various styles by artists including Mike Norton, Sergio Cariello, and Ron Frenz. Writers included old schoolers Chuck Dixon, Howard Mackie, and Tom Defalco, among others. In 2015, the stories were collected in the digital-only release, The Mighty Crusaders: The Lost Crusades. Though Red Circle did produce a New Crusaders hybrid (of a sort) with New Crusaders: Legacy, which included new material plus reprints by Steve Ditko, Gray Morrow, Alex Toth, etc., the imprint’s most significant addition (in truth, the only other regular, print Red Circle title) is Dean Haspiel and Mark Waid’s The Fox, a thoroughly entertaining and engaging five-issue series, one dominated by Haspiel’s antic and delightfully cartoony storytelling. (The artist also plotted much of the story arc.)

the company’s intent to insure that the young Crusader super-heroes “are not going to be dark…”.) Despite the outfit’s spin that New Crusaders remained an all-ages comic book, “Dark Tomorrow” also gave readers an abrupt change with a more gritty and realistic art style. “It’s still a super-hero comic for everyone,” editor Paul Kaminski told CBR, “but it’s a super-hero comic that’s more aged up than what we’ve been doing.” An influx of darkness, assuredly, would amp up sales. New Crusaders: Dark Tomorrow #1 never did ship despite plans for its release in May 2013. In fact, even on the digital platform, the series was aborted and that first issue would take two years to be published as a digital-only, one-shot release. Before the unceremonious demise of New Crusaders, there were ambitious plans to expand the Red Circle 268

Of particular note to MLJ fans is Haspiel and Waid’s inclusion of a number of Golden Age characters (or, at least in one instance, in name), including Bob Phantom, Madame Satan, Inferno, and a 1939 character so obscure that this is his first mention in this definitive book on MLJ: The Marvel! (The crime-fighting, well-dressed masked man had only two other appearances to his credit, Blue Ribbon Comics #2 and 3.) Plus, there’s the return of the ’80s heroine, She-Fox, as well as a back-up series starring the Golden Age Shield. Ben Herman’s review on his blog, In My Not So Humble Opinion, points out a pleasant feature within the series which ties it into the contemporaneous Red Circle Universe, specifically the only other title, New Crusaders: In addition to the Shield, there are also appearances by Dusty, the Space Chimp, and Bob Phantom. And we learn that [Fox alter-ego] Paul Patton [Jr.]’s daughter is Fly-Girl. For those who At left are panels by penciler Mike Norton and inker Terry Austin for the digital-only Mighty Crusaders: The Lost Crusade [Oct. ’15], written by Chuck Dixon. This spread includes cover reproductions of the #1 issues for New Crusaders [May ’12] and The Fox [Dec. ’13], as well as a glimpse at the Red Circle app and Jerry Ordway’s cover for the mostly reprint New Crusaders: Legacy [July 2013].

The MLJ Companion

In 2014, Alex Segura, Archie’s senior vice president of publicity and marketing, and editor of its Red Circle, was interviewed by CBR, where he discussed a more audacious direction for the line. “We want these characters MIGHTY CRUSADERS: to stand out and be compelling, not THE LOST CRUSADE feel like one of many heroes or a carbonSeptember 2015 In a recent interview, the Fox copy of existing Marvel and DC stuff… cartoonist shared the genesis of his work We don’t want Black Hood to feel NEW CRUSADERS: on the MLJ character. “In 2013, my like Batman outtakes, for example, or DARK TOMORROW friend, comic book writer Vito Delsante, make the Shield and Cap[tain America] June 2015 told me that he was writing a short Black interchangeable. Each title or character Hood story for Red Circle,” Haspiel will have his own unique tone and shared. “I told Vito that I loved the Fox, story—but we will be trying to push the especially the two stories Alex Toth produced in the mid-’80s, and envelope. These won’t be all-ages super-hero books [but rather] we asked if he would introduce me to his editor, Paul Kaminski. Vito hope [the new titles] will appeal to older readers. As much as I love did and Paul seemed excited that I wanted to do something for New Crusaders, it won’t be a direct follow-up to that.” Red Circle. I asked if I could write and draw a short Fox story and showed him a Red Hook comic I created in 2012 as a way to prove With the arrival of the line’s first chief creative officer, Segura that I could do the Fox, since the Red Hook was semi-inspired by hinted that the future, in contrast to the sunny climes of Riverdale, the Fox (as well as Wildcat, another Irwin U.S.A., was about to get quite grim indeed. “If you want an Hasen co-creation).” idea of what we’re shooting for, Afterlife with Archie is your best example. We see the Red Circle expansion as a Haspiel continued, “Paul enjoyed Red continuation of the success of Afterlife.” Hook and asked me to pitch a Fox short story. I wrote ‘A Picture Lasts Forever,’ published in The Lost Crusades, and Paul liked it so much that he asked me to pitch a five-issue mini-series! I couldn’t believe it. So, I dusted off an old pitch, which never got off the ground—a John Carter, Warlord of Mars story, featuring other great pulp heroes, like the Shadow, Flash Gordon, and Doc Savage—and converted it into the Red Circle story arc, ‘Freak Magnet.’” have also read New Crusaders, these are nice touches that will make you go, “A-ha!” But they are done in such a way that if you’ve never laid eyes on that other mini-series, you will still be able to appreciate The Fox as a stand-alone piece. That is how continuity should work.

Red Circle DigitalOnly Comics Index

With one of the finest super-hero writers suddenly on board, Haspiel and Mark Waid’s The Fox was arguably the best thing to come out of the Red Circle Comics era, an exuberant, fun, and decidedly wacky super-hero comic book filled less with angst than with overflowing manic joy. Today, the Red Circle app doesn’t seem to work on current smart phones and the company has abandoned its digital.archiecomics.com website (though the Archie Comics app remains active). Try as they might, cyberspace proved to be no home for the MLJ heroes. Anyway, when it came to super-heroes, the tide of changing times was against the company, one which had been a long-standing arbiter of propriety and bulwark against violent, sex-tinged comics, always striving to be all-ages friendly. The outfit’s mission which, over the decades, had been so resolute in advocating wholesome material, proved no match for the über-violent Zeitgeist. Now, under new, shrewd corporate direction, and determined to make a sea-change in its content’s tone, Archie was bolstered by unexpected success with the melding of its most treasured property with, of all things, the zombie oeuvre. The MLJ characters were about to get much darker. Red Circle Comics’ The Fox and New Crusaders

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INTERLUDE Archie’s Monster Makeover After 75 years, everything changes at Archie Comics by Jon B. Cooke You have to hand it to Archie Comic Publications, Inc. The firm has become expert at getting the mass media’s attention. Sometimes the spotlight would be unwanted, as during the ’00s when corporate strife resulted in suits and counter-suits hurled between executives garnered press. But much more often the publicity was desired to help spread the word about bold moves the publisher was making with its ever-popular teen humor properties. While back in the day, the publisher was widely viewed as the most conservative of all comic book outfits (Archie had, after all, spearheaded the censoring Comics Code Authority, taken umbrage to Harvey Kurtzman’s satirical pokes, and sanctioned a “born again” bullpen artist to use their characters in an unabashedly evangelical comic line), at times the Goldwaters and Silberkleits would allow the unusual to tweak the world of Riverdale. (Archie Meets the Punisher [1994], anyone?) Plus, relevant themes would seep into the gang’s idyllic world, whether the debut of African-American characters or polemics about the environment. But the arrival of Jon Goldwater, son of one of the company’s founders, would drastically change the direction of the comic book imprint.

the media. That has been unbelievable to see. Everywhere, from India to Kenya to Australia back to the U.S. and Canada, it’s been amazing and it prompted Archie to open up offices in India, as a result of the strong, strong interest in the storyline there. So, it’s opened up new doors and created all types of new possibilities.

Uslan (one who would know after reading every single Archie story between 1941–80 for his book, The Best of Archie) added in that 2010 interview, “I love the fact that Archie is awakening— Archie Comics is awakening. It’s a company on the move from a little mom and pop operation to really spreading its wings and making some waves and being daring. It’s a wonderful, creative environment over there.” The truth was that the “alternative universe” story of Archie marrying his best girls (respectively in dual realities, mind you), emboldened the company to take more risks.

Less than a year after the initial marriage proposal, the line introduced the first openly gay character to the kids, Kevin Keller, whose orientation doesn’t bother the gang one whit. The debut snagged creator Dan Parent a GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Award in 2013. (In the alternate “adult” Archie universe, Keller became a U.S. Senator after surviving an assassination attempt by The shift in taking the Above is the cover that basically launched the Archie Horror line, Francesco Francavilla’s a gunman who instead killed Archibald Andrews, a “Death of characters into more provocative variant cover for (After)Life with Archie #23 [Nov. 2012]. Next page: #1 covers for the “New Riverdale” line-up, including a mock-up of the forthcoming Betty and Veronica #1. Archie” stunt that also grabbed realms began over a drink. headlines worldwide.) While Super-hero movie producer those events did create enough stirs that resulted in massive sales for Michael Uslan, who had a long relationship with the company, dating back to 1980, sat down with veteran editor Victor Gorelick in those key issues, a tonal change occurred at Archie Comics when a the late ’00s and suggested an idea for a graphic novel: Archie should bizarre notion was ventured: what if Riverdale and its denizens had to face an onslaught of flesh-eating zombies…? get married. Unable to counter the suggestion, “Archie Marries Veronica” began in Archie #600. The ensuing mass media frenzy was The secret history of Archie’s once and future chief creative officer unprecedented, as Uslan explained to Comic Book Resources: actually begins when a nascent playwright and his theater company faced the litigious wrath of Archie Comics over an unauthorized In retrospect, beside the fact that these comics have sold incredibly well on a worldwide basis, we thought it would create depictious of America’s Favorite Teenager and his pals ’n’ gals. The a stir, but we didn’t think it would create a worldwide firestorm in play was called Archie’s Weird Fantasy and the author was a young

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Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa. Apparently the comics publisher had caught wind of the Atlanta production, which was set to open on April 4, 2003. The story featured Archie coming of age and telling the world he was gay. As reported in the website Creative Loafing, “‘Archie Comics thought if Archie was portrayed as being gay, that would dilute and tarnish his image,’ says [the play venue] Dad’s Garage artistic director Sean Daniels. ‘They said in the script, they counted seven copyright infringements that would each cost $150,000 in fines. We never expected to face a million-dollar bill if we put on the show.’” Suffice to say, when the show opened, names were changed and the publisher’s lawyers were kept at bay. Years later, Aquirre-Sacasa would again encounter Archie, long after establishing an eclectic career as playwright, screenwriter, and Marvel Comics scripter. The writer was passionate about the Riverdale gang and, he shared with CBR, “I stalked Jon [Goldwater] for a couple of years until we were at New York Comic Con, and I literally stopped him at the Archie booth, and I said, ‘I have to write something for you.’ Jon said, ‘Well, pitch us something.’ Later that day, I was flying to L.A., and I sent him an e-mail: ‘Well, what if we did Archie Meets Glee? Jon basically said, ‘If you can make that happen, we’ll do it.’” The writer wasn’t just whistling Dixie, as he just happened to be working for the hit TV series’ co-creator, Ryan Murphy, at the time. Needless to say, the four-part Archie Meets Glee mini-series was released in 2013, boasted impressive sales, and was critically well-

Red Circle Comics’ The Fox and New Crusaders

received. Most importantly, it brought Aquirre-Sacasa into the Archie fold. The 23rd issue of Life with Archie [Nov. 2012], a title which had been reformatted as a magazine-size comic book including tales of the alternative adult Archie universe, sported a creepy variant cover by Francesco Francavilla that revealed poor Archie being surrounded by zombified Riverdale friends (with the logo playfully altered to “Afterlife with Archie”). Taking note of the unusual sales spike on that particular edition, Aquirre-Sacasa huddled with Jon Goldwater and son Jesse Goldwater, and the trio joined with Francavilla to formulate a series centered around “Apocalypse in Riverdale.” The Afterlife with Archie series was not only an enormous hit for the company, but it also spawned the Archie Horror line, which expanded to include Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, starring the publisher’s popular teenage witch character. In 2015, fortified with the success of their audacious attempts to infuse the line with innovative approaches, the company embarked on a radical reboot of their most treasured asset: the Archie teenage humor line. Enlisting the talents of top comics creators, the “New Riverdale” campaign restarted Archie and Jughead with new first issues, with Betty and Veronica #1 due sometime in 2016, and Josie and the Pussycats and other related properties set to follow. With all these changes, it was a given that Archie’s MLJ characters were due for their own drastic makeovers.

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Dawning of The Dark Circle

Inspired by the breakout success of Afterlife with Archie and subsequent introduction of the Archie Horror line, the comics publisher made the decision to re-tool the Red Circle Comics imprint as Dark Circle and, in essence, create a new crime comics category. Still, the return of the Fox and introduction of a new Shield indicated the MLJ characters’ super-hero roots were not being totally abandoned.

Red Circle Goes Dark

The MLJ heroes experience a drastic tonal change [Editor’s Note: Following is a 2015 interview with Alex Segura, noted novelist who is also known for his comics writing, and editorial/publicity work for both Archie and DC Comics. Segura now serves as senior vice president of publicity and marketing for Archie and is editor of the latest berth for the MLJ heroes, the Dark Circle Comics line, a rebranding (and then some) of Red Circle.]

Alex Segura Interview by Rik Offenberger While the characters contained within the Dark Circle began life as traditional super-heroes, there is little that is traditional about this exciting new imprint. For starters, the titles in Dark Circle aren’t a “shared universe” the way the DC and Marvel Universes are shared. In Dark Circle, the super-hero dramas play out in a variety of different genres. In that regard, “Dark Circle” becomes a branding much the way HBO presents Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Sopranos, and Game of Thrones—all different genres, but all known as high quality entertainment.

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“Each book has its own, distinct personality and flavor that gives readers a unique take on the super-hero concept, by some of the best writers and artists I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with,” says Segura. “As these books develop, we’ll continue to explore the Dark Circle library and find ways to reintroduce these great concepts—and create some new ones.” The Dark Circle line kicks off with The Black Hood, written and drawn by Duane Swierczynski and Michael Gaydos, respectively. The title is unlike anything seen before. The series starts off with Philadelphia police officer Greg Hettinger being shot in the face and accidentally killing Matthew Burland, the previous Black Hood. As a result of his injuries, Greg becomes addicted to painkillers… and also decides to don the Black Hood. He is hunted by both the police and the underworld. As described in the solicitation copy, “The new Black Hood may not have to be stopped. He’s coming unglued all on his own!” As the series unfolds, it becomes clear it is more crime drama than super-hero story.

The MLJ Companion

The Dark Circle Comics Index THE BLACK HOOD April 2015 to Present #1–10

THE FOX

June 2015 to October 2015 #1–5

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY: DARK CIRCLE June/July 2015 #1

THE HANGMAN

December 2015 to Present #1–3

SAM HILL: IN THE CROSSHAIRS October 2015 Graphic Novel (Digital only)

Following The Black Hood was THE SHIELD the return of The Fox by Dean December 2015 to Present Haspiel and Mark Waid. The Dark #1–2 Circle arc, Fox Hunt, both continued THE WEB from the previForthcoming ous storyline, 2016 Red Circle’s Freak Magnet, yet it also stood on its own, so the reader didn’t have to have read the previous installments to enjoy the new stories. Paul Patton, Jr. is the Fox, a photojournalist who becomes the hero so that he could be first on the scene when crime happens. In the new series, The Fox is still a family action dramedy. This time we focus on Paul’s son, Shinji, who becomes the Ghost Fox, and hopes to become his dad’s sidekick. The title Fox Hunt refers to both the underworld’s hunt for the Fox and Paul’s search for his missing son. As Segura describes the series, “It’s been a blast. Dean brings such a great, do-it-yourself indie ethic to everything he does that you can’t help but feel energized by it. The [Red Circle] Fox was such a

The Dark Circle Comics

Chapter Eleven: Dark Circle Comics

“We just told Duane and Michael to cut loose and not feel constrained by any preconceived notions of what a Dark Circle book is,” says series editor Segura. “The Black Hood is a crime book first, a dark tale of a man who’s lost his way and the one thing that drags him out of the dirt. It’s a closer cousin to books like Stray Bullets and Fatale than vigilante titles like Daredevil or Batman. Michael’s also an expert in tone and vibe, so the nuance and mood he brings to this book is essential and a key component to the series— which is exactly what we want. This is a story about a man who’s had everything taken away from him and we get to see him react and try to pull himself up again. Whether he makes it or not remains to be told, but I can’t think of two better storytellers to walk us through it than Duane and Michael.”

Previous page is detail from Francesco Francavilla’s cover of the one-shot freebie, Free Comic Book Day: Dark Circle [2015]. At left is promotional art for The Hangman (presumably by Felix Ruiz), a recent addition to the new Archie Comics’ super-hero line. Above is a portrait of Alex Segura, Archie senior vice president of publicity and marketing, as well as editor of the Dark Circle imprint. At right is the latest incarnation of the first patriotic super-hero, The Shield, as rendered by artist Wilfredo Torres.

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critical success for us, we had to bring it back and make it part of this bigger initiative. It shows that these characters are working in a larger universe and gives readers a sense that Dark Circle Comics aren’t grim and gritty for the sake of it, but actually a wide spectrum of books that appeal to pretty much any kind of fan looking for great comic books.” [Though no official word has come from Archie, it appears that The Fox has been either cancelled or is on hiatus at this writing.] The last character of the first wave from the new imprint is a re-imagining of the Shield. Chronologically, the Shield is the first hero in the Dark Circle universe. She is Victoria Adams and she first appeared during the American Revolution as a spirit of that struggle for liberty sent to fight for what is right. She has been reincarnated throughout American history and each time she has a clear reason, a need for her existence in the country’s darkest hours. This new Shield, in a story set in the pres-

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ent day (by writer Adam Christopher, and artists Chuck Wendig and David Williams), has no idea who she is or why she is here. Victoria is hunted by the government in this conspiracy thriller. Although dressed in a red, white, and blue super-hero uniform, this is more like the television thrillers Homeland and The Americans than Captain America. “The Shield concept,” Segura said, “has been fine-tuned to display a greater depth and wider scope in terms of showing where our country is and how it would benefit from a hero like the Shield appearing now, in arguably our greatest time of need.” After the first wave of new titles, Dark Circle will launch two more series as the line expands. The second wave consists of This spread features the covers for the first issues of the recently released Dark Circle line published by Archie Comic Publications, plus [left] Francesco Francavilla’s cover of Free Comic Book Day: Dark Circle [2015] and, inset on next page, prospective cover art by Szymon Kudranski for the forthcoming release, The Web #1.

The MLJ Companion

The Hangman, which debuted in December 2015, and The Web, set for release in 2016. “We want to explore different genres and push the envelope with some of the best talents in comics and beyond,” says Segura. “The Hangman will surprise people. It’s not what you expect—which is exactly what Dark Circle is about. It’s a story told as if Quentin Tarantino was adapting a Stephen King novel.” The creative team of writer Frank Tieri and artist Felix Ruiz present a tale of a new Hangman set in a supernatural horror genre, but not in the way Sabrina or Afterlife with Archie is supernatural. This is street-level horror that will be very relatable to readers. Frank Tieri describes the series as follows: “This isn’t Superman or Spider-Man. Hell, it’s not even Batman. This is raw and violent and dirty and real disturbing. This

The Dark Circle Comics

is the devil and demons and serial killers and the vile disgusting parts of ourselves we don’t like to talk about. And yet… this is also about redemption. Oh, and by the way, just in case you were wondering—spoiler alert—yeah, a ton of people are gonna get hanged.” The Web re-envisions the character as a 14-year-old Jersey girl with nagging parents and brand new super-powers. Due in 2016, the series will be written by Dave White and drawn by Szymon Kudranski. Also part of the new Dark Circle imprint is a digital line of hard-to-find comics that have not been reprinted or collected in trade paperbacks, including the Impact comics line published by DC in the ’90s. In closing, Segura said, “We really want to give people quality. We want to make people feel they are getting their money’s worth when they get a Dark Circle comic.”

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Bright Ruminations on the Dark Circle Comics Who in the Sam Hill is Sam Hill?… and Fox stuff by Jon B. Cooke While doubtless a contradiction to the majority of its previous approaches to their valuable MLJ super-hero line, the new imprint, often featuring gritty stories drenched in crime noir, is certainly an ambitious embarkation for Archie Comics, a company never shy about making an impact in the direct market. Nicely designed, handsomely drawn, and scribed by notable writers, particularly of the crime fiction ilk, Dark Circle Comics, which debuted in mid2015, exhibits great promise in establishing its own identity in an almost hopelessly crowded field. One wouldn’t expect such a non-gritty and happy-go-lucky series as Dean Haspiel and Mark Waid’s The Fox would fit so snuggly alongside the gun-play of The Black Hood and lethal vengeance of The Hangman, but it succeeds so well, in this writer’s opinion, simply because the exuberant title is such a tonal contrast to the more sombre fare. What justifies its inclusion under the Dark Circle imprint name is the ink-heavy, Alex Toth- and Jack Kirby-inspired artistry of Haspiel, whose old-school approach is itself smartly contrasted with the wacky story developments and hilarious dialogue written by Waid. It works. In a recent interview, the artist shared about the genesis of the new series. “The Red Circle five-issue ‘Freak Magnet’ series was successful enough to inspire a second series,” Haspiel said, “but now I was producing it for Dark Circle, which was edited by Alex Segura. I wanted to do something more substantial with Madame Satan, who resurrects and mind-controls the original Jaguar to uncover and help reanimate an eons-old dinosaur buried beneath Impact City. It was going to be a story about the mysteries of death and fossil fuel. I wanted to bring back the Fox’s ex-girlfriend/stripper, who has become a therapist to super-heroes, and her sexy ways throw a wrench into his relationship with his wife Mae (a.k.a. She-Fox). And, I wanted to do more with the budding romance I hinted at in ‘Freak Magnet’ between the Marvel and Inferno.” Haspiel continued, “Instead, I was asked to pitch a story with the 276

title of ‘Fox Hunt.’ Dark Circle wanted me to write about someone who has put a bounty on the Fox’s head that brings out a bunch of villains for the guy to fight. So, I scrapped my initial sequel idea and concocted a story featuring Mr. Smile, a character another writer originally created for the New Crusaders to contend with and who only appeared in one panel of ‘Freak Magnet.’ I came up with a conflict and a way to show more of the Fox’s backstory and get his son, Shinji, into the family business of fighting crime by becoming Ghost Fox, which helps confuse the bad guys, but creates tension between father and son. I originally had Fly-Girl in the story, who is the Fox’s estranged daughter, but Dark Circle wanted me to focus on the immediate family. I produced ‘Fox Hunt’ with Waid, Passalaqua, and letterer Rachel Deering and, even though it wasn’t what I wanted to do as a sequel, I am proud of those issues.” The artist concluded, “I don’t know if ‘Fox Hunt’ did as well as the Red Circle story arc, but that was the end of my tenure on The Fox, which is a shame because I really love the character. As I was wrapping up the art on the Dark Circle run, I pitched a third story called “Dark Fox,” that would have brought back the original Fox, who has gone mad. I thought it would appeal to the Dark Circle line, but I’m not sure if it was ever seriously considered. Alas, maybe my ultimate sensibilities were too hopeful and zany to fit into the Dark Circle universe.” Currently, while he hopes to one day draw the Fox again, Haspiel is able to flex his super-hero energies on his own champion, the Red Hook, a character which initially snagged for the artist the first Red Circle assignment and was actually inspired by the respective Irwin Hasen and Alex Toth versions of the MLJ hero. The Red Hook web series can be found online at webtoons.com. A curious addition to the Dark Circle line-up is the graphic novel Sam Hill, by writer Tom DeFalco and artist Greg Scott. The crime story stars a gumshoe rarely seen in Archie Comics since the early 1950s, when “America’s Hard-Boiled, Wise-Cracking Sleuth” headlined seven issues of his own title, Sam Hill, Private Eye. The MLJ Companion

“I seem to remember that Archie was going through its old properties around the time I did ‘The Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.’ for them [Archie #610–613, Aug.–Nov. ’10],” recalled Tom DeFalco. “The powers-that-be rediscovered Sam Hill and approached me about reviving him. I am a big fan of Harry Lucey, who wrote and drew the original series, so I was already familiar with the character, and Victor Gorelick, my once and current editor at Archie, knew that I had a passing familiarity with the mystery genre.” DeFalco continued, “I don’t quite remember if the original plan was to do a four-issue mini-series or the first four issues of a possible monthly series. I just know that I constructed the story so that each of the four issues would be a complete unit of entertainment and that all four worked together to show an even larger story. I also took it for granted that no one had ever heard of Sam Hill, so I clearly established all the characters in the series.” The scribe also revealed that, along with Sam Hill, “Archie was going to launch a number of titles, one of which was going to be a new series starring Cosmo, the Merry Martian. The company also planned to reprint all of the original Harry Lucey Sam Hill, Private Eye stories in a trade edition. Unfortunately, Archie’s publishing plans changed and none of the new titles ever came out.” Previous page is Dean Haspiel’s Fox art intended for the as-yet unpublished Fox Hunt collection. Above at left is Harry Lucey’s cover for Sam Hill, Private Eye #2 [1951] and, at right, Greg Scott’s cover for the digital-only Sam Hill: In the Crosshairs collection. The Dark Circle Comics

With four issues of Sam Hill in the can, comprising the “In the Crosshairs” story arc, the publisher decided not to print the series and opted instead to release it as a 88-page digital offering on their Archie Comics app. Written and drawn around 2010–11, the collection was finally made available for download in October 2015. And while gratified the world finally has access to his story, DeFalco said, “I would love to see the series in print and would jump at the chance to spend more time with Sam. Needless to say, I was inspired by Harry’s work on the original series and tried to recapture his combination of hardboiled and wisecracking detective.” Greg Scott shared about the gig. “This is no joke: my phone rang and a gravelly voice on the other end asked, ‘Is this Greg Scott?’ I answered yes. ‘Do you live in Staten Island?’ I said yes. The voice replied, ‘You’re dead to me.’ Excuse me? ‘Just kidding! This is Victor Gorelick, Archie Comics.’ That’s how I got hired to draw Sam Hill!” About working with DeFalco, Scott said, “I had read Tom’s Marvel work for years, was always a fan, so when I heard he was going to be writing Sam Hill, I was surprised. I mean, it’s a true hard-boiled crime story, and it’s really fun, but with an edge that I don’t think we’ve seen from Tom before. I loved working on it.” “I loved working with Greg,” the writer enthused, “and think he did a fantastic job, really capturing the hardboiled feel I wanted.” 277

POSTscript Those Majestic MLJ Heroes! Over 75 years of Archie’s ever-changing super-heroes by Jon B. Cooke Let’s face it: if you’re reading this exhaustive history of Archie Comics’ great roster of superheroes, you’re a fan of those fascinating creations. And, aside from the initial Golden Age run, given how only the Fly and the Jaguar have had any staying power with their respective titles in the ’60s, you’re also probably a little frustrated about the erratic, on-again, off-again publishing history of the “ultraheroes.” After all, in this writer’s estimation, out of the last 76 years since the 1939 debut of the Wizard, the very first MLJ “mystery man,” only 20 years or so of that span constitute the characters’ actual time appearing in print in total (and nearly four of those years were in comics published by rival DC). But, truth be told, it is that very irregular, stop-and-go nature of their existence which is a huge part of the Mighty Heroes’ appeal, at least to those aficionados who also have an interest in the arc of comics history over the last three-quarters of a century. A study such as this very book certainly enriches us with a considerable insight into the vastly under-appreciated legacy and engrossing background of Archie Comic Publications. As viewed through the prism of the MLJ heroes, we find a publisher at times reluctant to exploit the perennial allure of the characters; and, in other times (especially as of late, thankfully), a company fervent to revitalize and make the characters relevant to a new generation. Obviously, in the mainstream publishing world, in which Archie has had no small impact, comic book production is, pure and simple, a business. It goes without saying that sales have always dictated the survival of any given genre from Day One, and the publisher has understandably relied most on the category they pretty much created: teen humor. But, to its credit, the company has periodically mustered their Golden Age line-up to stand shoulder-toshoulder among the DC and Marvel hordes of

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spandex-clad characters. Mostly, despite their oft valiant attempts, those efforts have failed, even when they lease out the roster to other publishers… and yet the MLJ heroes endure. Ultimately, the characters’ durability is likely due to the promise they possess, whether it is their often endearingly quirky and sometimes downright weird portrayals over time or perhaps it could be some indefinable, iconic nature of their conceptualizations. All of the “The” characters—The Shield, The Comet, The Web, The Fly, The Black Hood, The Hangman (and not to mention the vastly under-used Mr. Justice)—they scream potential and talented writers and artists return again and again to give their respective takes on the Mighty Crusaders. And, though some wags would call the short-lived imprints false starts, these almost endless variations add a captivating luster to the Mighty Crusaders’ legacy that, again, also gives us a sense of the eras from whence they came. Whether the licensing-crazy ’60s or the direct sales marketing of the ’80s or the field’s recent obsessions with “Big Events,” the new incarnations of old characters give us a reflection of their times. Perhaps, though, if this history of the MLJ superheroes proves anything, it is that the Mighty heroes are mighty good fun. Let’s look over some of the highlights (maybe in the hope that some future interpretation of the Mighty Crusaders and ancillary characters will take heed of what is truly cool about the heroes): In striking the proper tone for a Mighty Crusaders series, there must be a sweet spot that lies somewhere between the sturm und drang of recent DC Red Circle (top, epitomized by this team portrait from the Mighty Crusaders #6 [Feb. 2011] cover by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau) and the lunatic wackiness of the Mighty Heroes (left, represented by the nameless guitar-strumming bard who inexplicably appears as rhyming narrator of various tales, such as Fly Man #36 [Mar. ’66], from whence this Paul Reinman-drawn detail was taken). And yet, truth be told, the tonal extremes that have transpired over the decades are part of the appeal of MLJ!

The MLJ Companion

There is the startlingly original development of the 1941 death of a super-hero—something that would cause seismic consternation among fans more than a quarter-century later with Ferro Lad being deep-sixed in “The Legion of Super-Heroes” and Menthor biting the dust in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents—when the Comet is killed in the line of duty and the character’s brother dons the identity of the blood-thirsty Hangman, swearing vengeance over little bro’s death. Simply said, it is an awesome development in a superhero comic book and it must have made young readers squirm with delight. Archie’s re-entry into the super-hero milieu, courtesy of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s the Fly and the Lancelot Strong version of the Shield, was a watershed moment for the publisher, sharing the notion that despite varying levels of commitment, the MLJ heroes were here to stay. (Plus, that pair of Double Life of Private Strong comics and first four issues of The Fly are among the best super-hero comic books of their time, boasting not just Simon and Kirby, but also George Tuska, Jack Davis, Bob Powell, and Al Williamson. Kirby’s work, especially, just shines.) Call them silly or stupid, but the Mighty Age of MLJ was nothing less than exuberant and an earnest attempt to grab some of the Batman and Marvel Comics spotlight. And the silly conceits of Those Majestic MLJ Heroes!

some of the characters, such as the perennial unemployment of the Shield or the pie-eyed romanticism of the Fox, might be off-key, but they were fun… sometimes head-scratchingly so, but still fun. And the best depiction (certainly the corniest) was the domestic strife faced by the Web, middle-aged, suburban husband who was perpetually nagged at by his wife and mother-in-law to give up the super-heroics… Wacky, amusing stuff… In the last half-century since, there’s been Bill DuBay’s valiant attempt to infuse The Comet with meaning deeper than the usual super-hero fare; Alex Toth’s positively perfect pair of Fox stories in The Black Hood; Mark Wheatley’s acclaimed Black Hood Impact series and the 17 issues of writer Len Strazewski and artists Mike Parobeck/Paul Fricke’s The Fly are definite keepers; the recent J. Michael Straczynski re-imagining of the Hangman as a former Civil War veteran and now an accursed immortal was a fascinating riff; Dean Haspiel and Mark Waid’s frantic and fun Fox series remain some of the finest “throwback” entertainment to appear in comic book pages in a looonnngg time; and the crime-novel approach in the latest Dark Circle versions of the Black Hood and Hangman is gripping, to say the least… Now, with more than 75 years under their belt, the immortal MLJ heroes march on… and here’s to 75 more! 279

Collecting the Milieu of the MLJ Comics Universe An interview with comics expert Jeffrey C. Vaughn Conducted by Rik Offenberger [Editor’s note: J.C. Vaughn is Gemstone’s Executive Editor, and no one knows the whole range of collectibles better than he. He edits the most well respected and well known collectible price guides, and was kind enough to share his insights on the MLJ line of comics.] Rik Offenberger: How collectible are the early MLJ Comics? J.C. Vaughn: The early MLJ titles are highly collectible; some of them have significant appeal in virtually any condition. While there are fewer collectors trying to put together key runs of early Archie titles than of, say, vintage DC or Timely, the ones that are out there make up in passion what they lack in numbers. If you read the market reports in The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #44, you’ll find mentions of Archie. The great job the company is doing marketing the characters today also has, I think it’s safe to say, a lot to do with the increased awareness of the older material among newer collectors. RO: With Archie being such a dominant part of MLJ history, is there a market for the early super-hero comics? Vaughn: Definitely. At this point it’s not nearly as hardcore as the market for the Archie-related titles, but modern audiences are once again beginning to understand that MLJ heroes have had some fairly classic material in their various iterations. The launch of the Dark Circle line has us all curious about whether more folks will come to know earlier versions. For instance, Dean Haspiel’s first mini-series of The Fox led to us doing an article in the 2014–15 Overstreet’s Comic Book Marketplace Yearbook on Alex Toth’s earlier stint on the character. [Editor’s note: That article, by Paul Castiglia, is reprinted in this book.] If you go back and check out the Impact line, when DC published the characters, I think there are few comics better from that period than The Black Hood by Mark Wheatley and Rick Burchett. Outstanding stuff. So, I really hope the new line will be awesome unto itself and spur discovery of the older material. RO: Are just the key issues collectible or is the entire line in demand? Vaughn: Just like anything else, it depends on a lot of factors. Once some collectors want something, they want all of it. Others just want key issues. With the Archie titles, there are more completists out there. With the MLJ super-heroes, I don’t think I could accurately guess. RO: The Canadian FEH variants, with Roly Poly 280

Comics, Super Comics, and Black Beauty are far more scarce. Are they more or less collectible? Vaughn: Canadian editions are becoming more and more worth talking about. We’ve added a handful of Overstreet advisors in the Great White North and will be exploring this and other questions in the months and years ahead. It’s not the hottest of hot fields, but it’s definitely underdocumented and deserving of exploration. RO: Are Canadian Whites a respected genre of comics, or are they considered reprints? Vaughn: First, there are plenty of reprints that are considered respected genres of comics. I think it’s safe to say that many people—including me—were either entirely or almost entirely unaware of the early horror work at Archie until some of that old material ran as reprints in The MLJ Companion

Afterlife with Archie. That’s just as a “for instance.” Second, the WECA comics, or “Canadian Whites,” are definitely popping up on the radar. ComicLink had a number of them in an auction, and we put the spotlight on them in a feature article by Ivan Kocmarek in The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #44. We are confident we’ll be hearing more about them in the market as more and more people understand their unique history. RO: MLJ offered a variety of premiums in the ’40s, including a 1940 comic strip viewing device, and a few different versions of the Shield G-Man Club. The Club included a postcard, a badge, and a membership card. How valuable are any of these items? Vaughn: There are a number of different auction sources for this sort of material but, if I may be partisan for a moment, I will recommend Hake’s Americana & Collectibles, which have been selling and auctioning this type of material for more than 47 years. They’re my company’s sister company, just to be upfront about my bias, but I’ve had a chance to interact with Ted Hake for more than 15 years on a number of price guides, as well as with Alex Winter and their whole staff, and they could tell you there are some fantastic items, including the ones you mentioned. It’s been too long since Ted’s last book for me to speculate on the prices, but that just confirms that it’s another area that deserves a good look. RO: In the Silver Age, there was a revival with Mighty Comics. Have the Mighty Comics seen collectible values anywhere near their DC and MLJ house ads promoting both the short-lived Black Hood radio program [1943–44] and the much more successful Archie Andrews series, which was broadcast coast-to-coast on NBC (and briefly on Mutual) between 1943–53.

Those Majestic MLJ Heroes!

Marvel Silver Age counterparts? Vaughn: No. At least not across the board. There’s a definite interest, and it seems entirely reasonable that if the Dark Circle titles grab the imagination of readers, that interest will correspondingly increase in the previous iterations. RO: There was a Mighty Crusaders board game produced in the 1960s by Transogram Games. Is there a market for board games? Vaughn: There is a market for any rare, vintage, high grade pop culture collectible. Sometimes it’s more work to find that market, while at other times it’s easier. RO: Was Transogram a prominent producer of board games? Vaughn: Not to the level of Milton Bradley or Parker Brothers, but they had a long history, apparently dating back to 1915. RO: Is there any collectability with the Mighty Crusaders board game in particular? Vaughn: Depending on condition, but undoubtedly! RO: The ’80s Red Circle re-launch of the MLJ heroes featured a lot of big name creators of the day. How has the value of those issues held up over time? Vaughn: Most of them are relatively inexpensive, enough so that picking up whole sets is more a task of finding dealers with them than worrying about the price. That said, there are a few gems in there definitely worth seeking out.

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RO: In 1984, Remco issued a line of Mighty Crusader toys. It was one of the last lines of toys to come from Remco. Is the line of toys of any collectible significance? Vaughn: In my experience, this is very much like real estate. If you have the right seller and the right buyer at the same time, some of the prices could be surprising. One thing that is really worth noting is that this has not been documented very well at all. If today’s collectors stopped and thought about it, and realized these toys are now 30 years old, it seems reasonable to suggest that demand for prime examples could spike. Supply and demand will always be the determining factors, but I consider documentation of the supply to be a key factor in that. RO: What is the collectible market for MLJ super-hero original art? Vaughn: Golden Age and even early Silver Age art from any company on the market continues to command attention. MLJ is no different in that regard. As with the other publishers, specific characters and/or creators can have a big effect on the prices. RO: Is there much Golden Age art being sold? Vaughn: Not compared to late Silver Age and later works. RO: If someone wanted to start collecting MLJ original art, what should they look for? Vaughn: It’s much the same function as collecting comics. Get to know the dealers, develop relationships, and do business with trustworthy people. A dealer who rips you off now isn’t looking for a long-term relationship, and a dealer of whom you can take advantage won’t be in business long enough for you to develop a relationship with him or her. There are now some conventions dealing exclusively in original comic book art. Comic Art Con is the most established. RO: How appreciable is the artwork? Vaughn: As we said in The Overstreet Guide To Collecting Comic & Animation Art (and pretty much all of our other books), collect what you love and that way you’ll never go wrong. There has been significant upward movement in comic art prices over the last five

years. It seems likely to continue, but whether it really will or not could be determined by factors no one could ever predict. Do I think it will appreciate? Sure. Do I know if it will? No, I definitely do not. RO: With comics, it is easy for a collector to buy and sell their own comics online. How easy is it for art collectors to buy and sell? Vaughn: It’s phenomenally easy to do and equally difficult to do well. RO: These days original art commissions have become very popular. Is there a secondary market for commissioned art? Vaughn: There’s a market for anything done well. RO: How does someone set a value on commissioned art? Vaughn: Weldon Adams, who is a cataloger for Heritage Auctions now, did a wonderful article about convention sketches, commissions, and the like in The Overstreet Guide To Collecting Comic & Animation Art. One of the reasons we avoided the subject of values in that article is because it takes a fair amount of work to be conversant in this area, and even more work to stay current. Just like the rest of the original art market, though, some creators and some characters have more appeal and will command bigger prices. Others not so much. Some commissions have tons of detail, while others are just quick sketches. There are a ton of factors. The main answer is always experience. Joe Mannarino’s articles in that same book offer some very good guidelines on how to evaluate pages and covers, but some of what he says could definitely be applied toward evaluating custom pieces.

A virtually unknown comics publisher, Green Publishing Company, featured some MLJ super-hero reprints in its Roly-Poly Comics. Above is the cover to V2, #6 [#16, June–July 1946], which is an almost line-by-line swipe of Lou Fine’s Blue Beetle #1’s cover from 1940. Right is detail from the Steel Sterling story in Zip Comics #42 [Dec. ’42]. Next page is reproduction of the original art by Paul Reinman published in Mighty Comics #49 [Aug. 1967].

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Those Majestic MLJ Heroes!

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Learn More About MLJ

For additional information about Archie’s heroes… by Jon B. Cooke It is remarkable how little in the way of research has been done on the history of Archie Comic Publications, one of the largest—and oldest—American publishers of comic books, and about its MLJ super-hero line-up. As for the latter, the best resource remains the Mighty Crusaders website located at www.mightycrusaders.net, curated by MLJ Companion co-editor Rik Offenberger, where some of the material within this book originally appeared.

• #96, Aug. 2010 — Aside from the Will Murray feature, “Those Mighty, Mighty Crusaders,” which is reprinted in this book, included in this edition of A/E is an essay entitled “A Capsule History of the Fly—and his Awesome Offspring,” by Rik Offenberger & Chris Squire, plus ’80s Red Circle is mentioned.

Another outstanding resource to learn about the “ultra-heroes” is renowned comic book editor and writer Roy Thomas’ Alter Ego magazine, which has devoted significant space in some of its issues to the subject of the MLJ characters. Highlights include: • #23, Apr. 2003 — In this issue are respective interviews by Jim Amash with the excellent 1940s “Hangman” artist, Bob Fujitani, and longtime Archie editor Victor Gorelick (who worked on the Mighty Heroes line, credited as “Vic Torr”); and a long essay by Roger Hill on Archie Adventure contributor John Rosenberger, celebrated artist on The Adventures of the Jaguar. • #82, Dec. 2008 — Aside from the essay by Ron Goulart on the Golden Age of the MLJ super-heroes and Irv Novick interview by John Coates appearing in this book, this issue of A/E includes “The MLJ Super-Hero Index (1939–1948),” compiled by Michael (today Michelle) Nolan, plus a Jim Amash interview with “Li’l Jinx” creator and longtime Archie staffer, Joe Edwards, as well as an editorial on MLJ by the “rascally” editor.

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Those interested in an exhaustive and eclectic survey of the mighty MLJ super-heroes must visit the superb website curated by Rik Offenberger, www.mightycrusaders.net. Below are the covers of the MLJ-featured issues of Alter Ego discussed in this article.

The MLJ Companion

Fantagraphics’ Amazing Heroes devoted respective portions of its July 1st and 15th, 1984 issues, #50–51, to a two-part history of the MLJ characters to date, in Dwight R. Decker’s “MLJ Looks for a Way,” which includes some behindthe-scenes accounts of the 1980s Red Circle line. The Comics Journal #131 [Sept. 1989] contains a comprehensive news article on the cancellation of the Spectrum Comics line by Greg S. Baisden. Archie Comics’ publisher Richard Goldwater was interviewed by David Anthony Kraft about Red Circle and the teen humor line in general in Comics Interview #3 [May 1983]. The late Joe Simon’s personal account regarding his and partner Jack Kirby’s creations of The Double Life of Private Strong and, in particular, The Fly, can be found in two memoirs of his career as a comics professional, The Comic Book Makers [1990, Crestwood / II Publications] and Joe Simon: My Life in Comics [2011, Titan Books]. Pulp magazine historian David Saunders’ excellent website, www.pulpartists.com—subtitled “[A] Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists”—contains valuable information on the pulp and paperback connections of MLJ, as well as biographical items on the partners. Information on Mighty Heroes’ scribe Jerry Siegel can be found in numerous books, especially Super Boys: The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster—The Creators of Superman, by Brad Ricca [2013], and Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero, by Larry Tye [2012].

Professor Bart Beaty’s engaging treatise, Twelve-Cent Archie [2015], is an exhaustive look at the teenage humor line from 1962– For a look at Archie publisher John L. Goldwater and the Comics 69 (for which the author read every single Archie teen humor title Code Authority, check out either edition of Americana in Four published during that span!), the first scholarly work to investigate Colors [1964, ’74], by Goldwater, and Professor Amy Kiste Nyberg’s the output of Archie Comic Publications utilizing a wide range of Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code [1998], which was theoretical and methodological approaches. recently serialized in Alter Ego magazine. The contemporaneous history of modern comics since the advent A wealth of material on Archie Andrews and the company’s of the direct market has been covered by magazines that include teen humor phenomenon can be found in Craig Yoe’s books on The Comics Journal, Comics Buyer’s Guide, Amazing Heroes, and the comics phenom, especially the highly-recommended Archie: A Comics Interview. Historical retrospectives have been featured in Celebration of America’s Favorite Teenagers [2011], which touches such periodicals as the aforementioned Alter Ego, Back Issue, and upon the publisher’s teenagers-as-super-heroes fad in the 1960s. Comic Book Marketplace, as well as in the pages of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. Comic Book Artist Vol. 2, #3 [Mar. ’04], The Secret History of Marvel Comics, by Blake Bell and Dr. which showcased Little Archie with Bob Bolling and Dexter Taylor Michael J. Vassallo [2013], contains detailed information on the interviews. Comic Book Creator #4 [Winter ’14] boasted a look at early connections between the MLJ partners and Martin Goodman, the writer of the first “Archie” stories in Pep Comics, Victor Bloom. later publisher of what would become Marvel Comics. For items on the more recent MLJ super-hero lines, In 2005, artist Bob Fujitani, who drew his share of Hangman stories, illustrated and the comics news websites, Newsarama, Comic Book colored this re-creation of Irv Novick’s Pep Comics #17 cover, the same comic that introResources, and Comics Alliance, are invaluable tools. duced the avenging super-hero to MLJ readers back in the spring of 1941.

Those Majestic MLJ Heroes!

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It’s a Mighty MLJ World

The international reach of our beloved Crusaders Let’s end this exhaustive survey of the Shield, the Fly, the Web, Mr. Justice, the Fox, and Fly-Girl, as well as their sensational squadron of super-powered colleagues with a glance at some international editions from over the years, proving the Mighty Crusaders remain captivating the world over!

Fantastic

Mexico (1960)

Sinister Tales

United Kingdom (late ’60s)

Youth Globe Monthly Brazil (1942)

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Sunny Sun France (1983)

Star-Team

Germany (1982)

The MLJ Companion

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The Mighty Crusaders #4 cover pastiche by Allan Goldman. Courtesy of Michael Dunne.

All characters TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Archie characters created by John L. Goldwater. The likenesses of the original Archie characters were created by Bob Montana. Printed in China.

ALL THE WAY WITH THE HEROES OF MLJ!

From the dawn of the 1940s Golden Age of comics to the current graphic novel scene, the super-heroes of Archie Comics have entertained avid fans and casual readers alike with their often thrilling and sometimes wacky exploits. Called the MLJ super-heroes, the line-up includes such unforgettable characters as The Shield, America’s first patrotic super-hero; the ill-fated Comet, the first comic book crimefighter to actually be killed in the line of duty; and his vengeance-seeking brother, The Hangman, a “hero” who didn’t hesitate to execute the bad guys by rope!

Then, in the swinging ’60s, The Mighty Crusaders arrived with some of the wildest characters ever assembled, including the hen-pecked Web (whose wife secretly sneaks out to fight as Pow Girl!), as well as the sensual super-heroine who (no lie!) goes by the name of Fly-Girl! Plus, lest we forget, there was the Black Hood’s faithful robot horse named Nightmare…! This comprehensive book covers 75 years of ever-changing incarnations, including little-known, behind-the-scenes looks, such as the Watchmen-influenced Spectrum Comics line abruptly cancelled before debuting due to public outcry, as well as the scoop behind the not one, but two lines of Archie heroes oddly published by a main competitor, DC Comics! From the days of Zip and Pep to today’s Dark Circle, this massive blue ribbon, top-notch retrospective has it all!

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